


[vore] The Bunny Trap

by DandelionSea, wolfbunny



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Amputation, Blood, Blueberry is evil, Dismemberment, Fatal Vore, Gore, Hard vore, M/M, Red gets fridged, Some tags may be retconned :3, Suicidal actions, Torture, Vore, because here come some more tags, he got chewed up real bad, healing vore, i'm gonna leave the warning tags up tho because yikes, kemonomimi skeletons, stop reading the tags if you don't want to spoil the twist, such as, thoughts/intent of self-harm, wow it can solve some problems
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-10
Updated: 2018-09-26
Packaged: 2019-05-05 01:21:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 31,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14606082
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DandelionSea/pseuds/DandelionSea, https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfbunny/pseuds/wolfbunny
Summary: Razz doesn't really like the idea of using traps to catch bunnies.(Torture, gore, read the warnings.)





	1. Chapter 1

“Keep at it and _maybe_ you’ll have a chance of getting into the Guard too,” Razz sneered. He liked the other wolf—he reminded him of himself—but he couldn’t get all touchy-feely about it. Besides, if he taunted Blueberry, it would motivate him to train harder to prove Razz wrong.  
  
“You really think so?” The other wolf didn’t take the bait, ears erect, tail wagging excitedly. “Thanks for the advice! I just can’t wait to be in the Guard for real! Meanwhile, I’m going to go check my traps—do you want to come? You can have the first rabbit!”  
  
“Traps? I would never eat a rabbit I didn’t track down and catch with my own skills.”  
  
“Suit yourself!” Blue wasn’t affected by his judgmental spitting. “It’s actually pretty challenging to hide the traps so they’ll step on them without noticing though. They’re pretty sma—oh! There’s one right there!”  
  
Even while rattling on about traps, Blueberry had managed to detect a rabbit moving in the bush nearby. He immediately turned and pounced, standing up triumphantly with the bunny hanging from his gloved hand. Razz couldn’t help but be impressed.  
  
“You want it? I’m sure I’ve got another waiting in my traps,” Blueberry offered.  
  
“No thanks. You earned _that_ one with speed and reflexes.” Razz kept trying to subtly disparage the other wolf’s reliance on traps.  
  
It was a skeleton rabbit, not unusual in this forest, with red fur and a little fluff-lined jacket. Rabbits were monsters too, of course, and it was alternating between trying to pry its leg out of Blue’s grasp and firing ineffectual little monster bullets at him. But there wasn’t much a rabbit could do once a wolf had hold of it.  
  
Blueberry lifted it to his mouth and summoned a glowing blue tongue to lick it. The bunny stopped fighting, perhaps overcome with horror. It was small, easy to swallow in a single gulp—which was the best way to do it, anyway, as if you were too rough and killed your prey prematurely it would just go to dust.  
  
So when Blueberry licked up the dangling bunny’s arm onto his tongue, Razz expected him to guide its whole body into his mouth, not bite down.  
  
The bunny shrieked as Blue pulled it away, and Razz noticed a spatter of red magic across his teeth. What was he doing? He was just asking for the bunny to dust, and then where would he be? Missing out on most of its nutritional value, that’s where.  
  
The bunny curled up on itself as much as it could, still dangling by one foot. A thin trail of red magic from its arm ran down its skull and eventually dripped into the snow.  
  
Surely Blueberry would put it out of its misery now. But the other wolf took his time, smiling as cheerfully as ever as he pinched the bunny’s remaining arm between his fingers and pulled its spine straight. It gasped, more droplets of magic shaken loose from its injury. Razz saw that Blue had bitten through its sleeve as well as the bone. The leg Blueberry wasn’t holding hung limp, and the wolf reached for it with his tongue.  
  
“Blueberry, cut it out. You’re gonna dust him.” Razz couldn’t stand by and watch this foolishness any longer.  
  
“I know what I’m doing,” Blue hummed, and severed the bunny’s femur.  
  
The bunny probably could have screamed louder if it hadn’t lost so much magic already. Razz winced—of course he wasn’t sympathizing with a rabbit, but Blueberry was living very dangerously, bringing his meal to the edge of dust like that.  
  
At least Blue seemed to know he was pushing it, and finally scooped the whole bunny into his mouth. But instead of swallowing it right away, he left its skull and intact arm hanging out between his teeth. Its own teeth were clenched in pain, and tears trailed down its skull, mixing with the magic blood. Blueberry gradually increased the pressure of his jaws on its ribs until something cracked, and more red seeped out between the bunny’s teeth. Its arm tensed for a moment and then relaxed, its eye lights going fuzzy. Its skull dropped onto Blueberry’s tongue as he gathered it all the way into his mouth, and then he finally swallowed it.  
  
“Cutting it pretty close, aren’t ya?” Razz said, sneering again.  
  
Blueberry just smiled back at him. “If you bring them right to the point of dusting, you can absorb their magic really quickly. It’s efficient! And it’s just more fun. You should try it!” He licked the blood from his teeth, examined his gloves for any stray drops.  
  
Razz wasn’t convinced and couldn’t quite get his ears to stand up. “Whatever, runt. See you around.”  
  
“Bye!” Blueberry called after him as he stalked away into the forest.  
  
***  
  
Razz found himself circling around to approach the likely position he’d guessed for Blueberry’s traps from the other direction. He had the notion to see if they’d actually caught any rabbits. There wasn’t any reason for him to care, of course. He was just curious.  
  
His instincts proved accurate. If he hadn’t been looking out for the traps, he might have stepped in one himself. Although of course it was no threat to _him_ , and it wouldn’t be so devastating for a creature larger than a rabbit, it might not be an acceptable risk for other residents of Snowdin; he’d have to consult with the Guard later.  
  
The first two traps he found were empty. They were like miniature bear traps, strong metal jaws triggered to snap shut by a pressure-sensitive plate. He thought about triggering one with a stick, but Blueberry might smell him on it and that would lead to annoying questions. So he left them alone. The third one had a rabbit in it. Its magic was red, the same shade as the one Blueberry had eaten. Razz could tell because the trap had mangled its leg. The blood stood out on the snow vividly in some places, mixed in to create pink in others where the rabbit had clawed and dug at the ground, trying to pull itself away. Its fur and scarf were a matching scarlet.  
  
“Red, is that y—” The bunny’s words broke off as it raised its skull and saw him. Then it tried to take a defensive stance, crouching on its free limbs. “Stay back!” It summoned an array of bullets, but they immediately faded away. It was in too much pain to focus correctly.  
  
“Relax,” said Razz. “I didn’t set that trap. I’m not here to collect you.”  
  
The bunny remained wary, but it couldn’t really move, even when he walked right up to it. It made an attempt to at least pull itself to the opposite side of the trap, but was forced to stop with a grunt of pain. So it held still, glaring hatred at the wolf, ears pinned back, sweat beading on its skull.  
  
“Tell ya what,” said Razz. “I’ll set you free. Not outa mercy or anything like that. I just wanna mess with the wolf that set this trap.”  
  
The bunny didn’t react, only maintaining its ferocious glare. Razz reached for the trap. Now he wished he’d sprung one of the others so he could have had a chance to figure out how to reset them.  
  
When his hand was in range, the bunny grabbed it and sank his teeth into Razz’s glove. Razz only laughed. “You’ve got spirit, I’ll give you that,” he said. “But c’mon, I can’t get you out of there if you’re biting me.”  
  
The rabbit ignored him, so he used his unmolested hand to examine the trap. Of course, if there were just a button to press, the rabbits would figure it out and escape. Maybe he was supposed to just pry it open with his superior wolf strength. He shook the rabbit off his hand, and it fell sideways onto the snow with a cry. Of course he didn’t feel guilt over a rabbit, but—he had no desire to hurt the rabbit any worse; he just needed both hands to pull the trap open.  
  
The trap proved stronger than he’d expected. Perhaps it was just that he couldn’t get a proper grip—the trap’s jaws were wedged open by the rabbit’s leg, but only just—a little more pressure and its tibia and fibula would have been crushed flat. He couldn’t insert a finger to get a good grip to pull it open.  
  
“There must be some kinda trick. Or maybe he uses a special tool…” he pondered aloud.  
  
The bunny looked up at him, its anger replaced by fear. Maybe it had finally accepted that he wanted to help it, although it was either too proud or too far gone to beg.  
  
“No bunnies in this one!” Razz’s sensitive hearing picked up a faint, cheerful voice in the distance. Blueberry was coming this way. Did he announce himself so loudly just to torment any bunnies that were waiting for him? The rabbit had heard him too and made one last effort to pull itself free, bracing its arms in the snow. It strained for a moment, its red gloves carving a new pair of grooves in the snow under it, then collapsed with a pained gasp.  
  
Blueberry was getting closer. Razz could hear his footsteps now, as he was making no effort to move quietly. The bunny lay where it was, not looking at Razz. Perhaps it had lost hope.  
  
“Don’t give up now, bunny,” he whispered. “I have an idea. You know what animals do to escape these traps, right? It’s not like that leg could be saved anyway.”  
  
This got the bunny’s attention. It moved its skull far enough to look at him. Tears gathering in its sockets attested to the pain and hopelessness it must be feeling, which Razz could only begin to imagine.  
  
“This is gonna hurt,” he warned gruffly. He had to hurry, too. He examined the bunny’s leg—if the trap had squeezed just a bit harder it might shattered entirely. Razz had no tools to saw through bone, even the delicate bones of a rabbit. And his own magic attacks dealt blunt force trauma, not cutting damage. But perhaps he could bite through it, just as Blueberry had done to the other, even unluckier bunny.  
  
He tried to be gentle picking up the bunny, but it still cried out in pain with every motion. His first thought was to put the trapped portion of the leg in his mouth, but of course the trap was fastened in place with a metal chain, and he couldn’t bite through that. Blueberry was moving at a leisurely pace, but he was getting closer. Razz had no time to waste.  
  
“Don’t be scared,” he said to the bunny, moving himself around so that it faced him head on, rather than turning the bunny unnecessarily. “I won’t—well, I am gonna hurt you, but it’s the only way to save you.”  
  
The bunny looked into his eyes for a moment, and nodded. Razz opened his mouth and slid the bunny inside. It made a strangled noise of surprise, its body stiff. Resting on his tongue, it tasted like rabbit and bone, fear and pain, tears and blood. It was a little bigger—or taller, anyway—than the other rabbit had been, but nothing he couldn’t have swallowed in one gulp if he’d wanted to. He pushed its whole leg in past his jaws, and then rested his teeth on its injured leg, gently, right up against the jaws of the trap. The bunny yelped in pain from the light contact, then screamed as he bit down in earnest. Blood gushed into his mouth and he resisted the urge to swallow.  
  
Blueberry was close. He had probably heard the rabbit scream. He would almost certainly smell Razz at the scene and know who had stolen his prey. Let him, though. He probably wouldn’t even be angry. He would tease Razz about it, which would be much worse. But at least he wouldn’t repeat his cruel mealtime with this particular bunny. Razz kicked a little snow over the trap and hurried away, with the rabbit still curled up in his mouth. He could feel its bones pressing against his tongue, which meant it hadn’t dusted. If his mouth weren’t full, he would have encouraged it to hold on just a little longer until he could get it home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Razz takes the bunny home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was going to be 2 chapters but now it's longer :3

Razz stopped outside the front door and spat the bunny into his hands. Ugh, this was disgusting; the taste of it made his mouth water, and his own saliva mixed with the red magic the bunny had bled. At least the bunny was still whole and not just dust mixed in with that soup.  
  
He unlocked the door and went in. Slim was drowsing on the couch, but looked up curiously at his entrance. “What’s tha—”  
  
“Stay out of my room, mutt!” he snapped, stalking past his brother and up the stairs. The bunny groaned as he shifted it to one hand in order to get out a first aid kit and lay out a towel on the carpet. If it was conscious, that was probably a good sign. Razz set him down as gently as he could on the towel, but the bunny still gasped and stiffened for a moment. He cast healing magic on what was left of its leg, then cleaned and bandaged it up. He’d never treated an injury this severe or a monster this tiny, but he was confident the bunny was stabilized.  
  
“Here, lick this,” he said. The monster candy in the kit was far too large for the bunny to swallow, so he held it next to its skull. The bunny turned its skull and licked a few times at the candy before giving up. Razz frowned. “I’ll leave it here. See if you can eat some more in a few minutes,” he instructed, before leaving to scrounge up more supplies.  
  
Slim watched from the couch, still curious, as he went back and forth through the house, gathering items and cleaning the saliva and blood from his gloves, but Razz didn’t say anything to enlighten him. He finally returned and set up a shoe box with a pillow for the bunny, which was still lying on the towel where he’d left it.  
  
“You awake, bunny?” He tried to keep his voice soft. “I got you a bed. You like red, don’t you?”  
  
“Red?” Suddenly alert, the bunny sat halfway up, then collapsed onto the towel.  
  
“Uh, the color red. You’re wearing a lot of it, even without your left boot.”  
  
“Oh. Yes.” The bunny looked crushingly disappointed for a moment, but then it was gone. Had the boot comment been too insensitive? Razz could be a little gentler with it while it was recovering, he supposed.  
  
“Because I found you a red pillow,” Razz clarified. It was just a little on the purple side, but not that much. “Do you think you can take it if I move you onto your bed?”  
  
The bunny nodded firmly. Razz scooped it off the towel and set it on the pillow. Its face twisted in anguish, but it stayed quiet.  
  
“You should eat,” Razz said, placing the monster candy next to its skull again. “I’ll go see what vegetables we have.”  
  
***  
  
Razz couldn’t stay with the bunny all the time, and he didn’t trust Slim not to eat it, so it was left alone in his room while he was out performing his Royal Guard duties, and when he was cooking, at the very least.  
  
“Vegetarian enchiladas again?” Slim commented on the third day when Razz served him.  
  
“Vegetarian food is good for you,” said Razz, sitting down to his own plate.  
  
“Not if you’re a wolf. I need protein.”  
  
“Beans are protein, mutt.”  
  
“It’s not the same.”  
  
Razz looked up at Slim, surprised at his rebellious tone. “Then stop lying about and go catch something!”  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, the bunny was regaining its energy and kept dragging itself out of its shoe box and across the floor, only to collapse in exhaustion at various points on the carpet. Razz had threatened to put the shoe box in a cage, but the rabbit had objected so vociferously that in the end he’d just put the shoe box bed inside a larger cardboard box. Now the bunny was constantly moving around its box, trying to climb the walls. And talking. It was as if, unable to stand up, it couldn’t go anywhere physically but it could still cast its words far and wide across various topics. Its name was Edge and it had an imperious attitude and a lot to say about everything: bunnies, wolves, the forest, the food and conditions in Razz’s room, and its lazy brother Red.  
  
Razz had a bad feeling he’d met Red. So he tried not to guide the conversation in that direction, but Edge was clearly devoted to his brother, as much as he complained about him, and every subject seemed to lead back to Red.  
  
“You don’t need to put so much cheese in these,” Edge said one day when Razz brought him dinner. “I don’t know about wolf nutrition, but it’s too much for a rabbit. Red would like it, though.”  
  
“I don’t often cook for rabbits,” Razz answered, tamping down his urge to snap back at the complaint.  
  
“I really must go find Red as soon as I can walk. He probably thinks I’ve been eaten. And he’s useless at taking care of himself.” Edge’s ears drooped.  
  
“You done with that?” Razz nodded at the rabbit’s plate, the smallest he had been able to find but still comically oversized.  
  
“Yes. It’s far too much.”  
  
Razz took the plate away. “You know, it’s a lot harder to make things in miniature size for you.” He would finish it himself. You couldn’t worry about a rabbit’s germs when you’d had the entire rabbit in your mouth already.  
  
“You could take me to the kitchen and I could cook for myself!” Edge suggested, ears perking up again. “Although I suppose I would need a lot of assistance, at least at first.” They slumped back down.  
  
“I’d be glad to help you deal with the wolf-scale kitchen appliances,” said Razz. “But you know my brother is out there, and I really don’t trust him around you.”  
  
“I’m not afraid of him,” Edge said flatly, but the cant of his ears struck Razz as nervous. Then again, he was much more familiar with wolf body language.  
  
“Just stay in here, and stop trying to get out of your box. Your leg needs to heal.”  
  
“What leg?” Edge muttered darkly.  
  
“Just be patient. We’ll figure something out so you can walk, at least, after you’ve had more time to heal. If nothing else, we can find something to use as crutches.”  
  
Edge glowered.  
  
“But there are wolves with wooden legs and such, so maybe … Do bunnies have healers?”  
  
Edge grunted noncommittally. “Most bunnies who are injured that badly are already dead.”  
  
“I suppose I never gave much thought to how hard you bunnies have it. But try to lie still, please.”  
  
The bunny sighed. “Red would love to have an excuse to lie around doing nothing all day. Not that I would wish such an injury on him.” He narrowed his eye sockets at the wolf. “Why do you flinch like that whenever I mention Red?”  
  
“I’m not—! I’m not flinching!” Razz sat up straight, holding his ears perfectly erect.  
  
“Yes, you are. You look as if—”  
  
“And anyway, it’s just because your brother sounds so much like my lazy good-for-nothing brother!”  
  
Edge remained suspicious. “I admit he’s lazy, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say he—”  
  
“I don’t mean Red. How would I know? I’ve never met Red!” Razz protested too quickly.  
  
Edge looked away from him. “I will try to lie still.” He stayed silent until Razz left to wash the dishes, and when he came back the bunny was asleep.  
  
***  
  
There was something in Razz’s room that he was keeping a secret. It made noises sometimes, moving around—it wasn’t very big, probably. Razz had told Slim to stay out, but surely he wouldn’t know if Slim just teleported inside for a quick look.  
  
He resisted for several days, not even going near the door. But eventually it proved too much. There was still time before Razz got back, and the house was silent. He popped into his brother’s room and looked around. For a moment nothing seemed out of place—that wasn’t unexpected, if the thing he’d heard was as small as it sounded. Then he noticed the box on the floor by the bed. Peering inside, he saw a sleeping bunny, on a pillow in a shoe box, with a bit of lettuce and a thimble of water sitting nearby.  
  
It all made sense—or some of it, anyway. Razz had had traces of bunny scent on him lately, even though he didn’t seem to be spending any time hunting, and he certainly wasn’t serving rabbit at dinner. Slim reached out to touch the bunny, but held himself back. He should leave it alone; it was too tempting, especially when he’d had nothing but cheese and beans all week. “What are you doing here, bunny?” he said softly, not really expecting any response.  
  
But the bunny woke, blinking up at him. “Razz? You’re home earl—” It realized he wasn’t Razz and tried to jump to its feet, but something was wrong. It fell back onto the pillow, then frantically pushed itself to the corner and used the wall to help prop itself up, nearly standing. “Who are you? Stay back!”  
  
“Who am I? I’m the one asking questions here. Who are you and why are you here?”  
  
“I know who you are. You’re Slim.” The bunny answered its own question, but none of Slim’s.  
  
“Not very cooperative, huh? Let me guess. My brother’s keeping you in here for some reason instead of just eating you. So … maybe he’s trying to fatten you up?”  
  
“I’m a skeleton, you dimwitted wolf,” the bunny snarled.  
  
“Huh, good point. But maybe you’re on a special diet to make you taste better, or somethin’. I can’t think why else he’d have a bunny in his room. What happened to your foot?”  
  
The bunny tried to hide its injured leg. At first Slim hadn’t been sure if part of it was missing or it was just chained down somehow.  
  
“I guess it wasn’t a very lucky rabbit’s foot, huh?” Slim grinned.  
  
The bunny glared daggers at him.  
  
“Did he cut it off so you couldn’t run away? Kinda cruel, don’t ya think?”  
  
“He didn’t—!” the bunny started to protest, then faltered.  
  
“Well. I don’t wanna interfere. But you do look pretty tasty.”  
  
“You wouldn’t dare!” the bunny spat, scrabbling at the cardboard only to slip back down to a sitting position on the pillow.  
  
“Normally I wouldn’t, but if you’re just gonna tell him I was in here, maybe it’s better that I get rid of the evidence. If I crack open the window it’ll look like you escaped or somethin’.”  
  
“I can’t walk, you imbecile! How would I get up to the windowsill?”  
  
Slim shrugged and reached for the bunny again. “It’d be different if I could trust you not to say anything, but …”  
  
“Ugh! Fine! I won’t say anything!” The bunny shrank away from his hand.  
  
Slim stopped. “Promise?”  
  
“I give you my word.” It glared up at him seriously.  
  
“Okay, I’m gonna trust you this time.” He withdrew his hand and was just about to teleport back to the couch, when the bunny spoke.  
  
“Wait. Is that really—Is he really just preparing me to eat?” The bunny’s voice was hard and flat but its expression suddenly vulnerable.  
  
Slim shrugged again. “Didn’t he tell you? I can’t think of any other reason for a wolf to keep a bunny in his room.”  
  
He left the bunny to process that answer, teleporting back to the couch. The scent of the bunny made him hungry, but maybe he should hold off on going out to catch one of his own, in case Razz was planning on surprising him with this one. Was his birthday coming up or something?  
  



	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edge has some concerns.

“Did you eat my brother?” Edge demanded as soon as Razz came in to check on him before dinner.  
  
“What? No!” Razz made sure the door was closed and lowered his voice. “Why would you think that?” he asked, turning to smooth down the fur on his tail.  
  
“Are you planning to eat me?” Edge countered with another question.  
  
“Of course not!” He whipped around, his tail bristling again. “Would I put all this effort into healing you if I were just going to eat you? I wouldn’t have bothered to bring you back here. I wouldn’t even have talked to you while you were caught in the trap. I could have just snapped you up!”  
  
“But what do you want from me—and why are you always sad when I talk about my brother?” The bunny seemed to be opening up a little now. “I know you try to hide it, but whenever I mention him, you just seem guilty about something.” His voice hardened again. “Are you sure it’s not something like, Red tasted pretty good but would have been even better stuffed with enchiladas, so you’re trying to recreate that?”   
  
“What? Don’t be silly—does a rabbit’s diet even affect its flavor like that?” That was the wrong question; Edge looked horrified. “No. No, nothing like that. I didn’t have a clear goal in mind when I brought you here—I told you, I just wanted to mess with the wolf who set the traps. Because—I thought he was excessively cruel.”  
  
“More cruel than eating someone alive? Don’t tell me you’ve never … eaten a rabbit.”  
  
“I—Of course I have,” Razz admitted. “But not your brother.”  
  
“How do you know? Do you remember every rabbit you’ve ever eaten?”  
  
Razz glanced away. “No. But—I think I would remember if I’d eaten him recently.” He covered his emotion with sarcasm. “When did you last see him?”   
  
Edge paused, and his voice softened. “He went to get help when I was caught in the trap. I—I really just didn’t want him to be caught too.”  
  
Razz felt a pang at how futile Edge’s efforts had turned out to be.  
  
“You know something,” Edge said, grimly certain rather than accusatory. “Please tell me.”  
  
“All right, fine!” Razz snapped, then regretted it. “All right. I’ll tell you.” He sat down on the floor next to the box with a sigh. “Your brother—I didn’t eat him. But I’m pretty sure I saw him and—he’s dead.”  
  
“What happened?” Edge forced the question through clenched teeth.  
  
“He … was caught. By another wolf.” He hesitated, wondering how much he should say. There was no sense in hurting Edge further by going into the gory details.  
  
“And?” Edge picked up on his hesitation.  
  
“And—” He couldn’t tell Edge his brother had been bitten to pieces, but luckily he had another detail he could pretend he’d been hesitating over. “It was the same wolf that set the trap you were caught in.”  
  
That might still hurt to learn, considering that if Red had just stayed with his brother, Razz might well have spared them both.  
  
Edge did have something glistening in the corner of his eye socket. “The one you said was excessively cruel.”  
  
Oh, right. He’d mentioned that to Edge, hadn’t he? There was no point in lying about it now. “Yes.”  
  
“What did he do to Red? Was it … quick?”  
  
“N-no.” Razz tried to keep his voice neutral, but it broke, almost a sob.  
  
“I … I see …” Edge looked away from Razz’s face, his eye lights focused on the middle distance.  
  
“I’m—sorry. I know it’s hypocritical because I’m a wolf too, but I just didn’t want the same thing to happen to you.”  
  
Edge nodded, staying silent. He probably needed time. Razz sat there next to his box for a few minutes, but he needed to get up and do something. He could sympathize with the rabbit’s frustration at being expected to lie around with nothing to do.  
  
“Well … I’m going to make dinner,” he said, standing up. Perhaps neither of them really felt like eating right now, but there was still Slim to consider.  
  
“Wait.”  
  
“You need something?”  
  
“Just eat me.”  
  
Razz stood there with his ears laid back in consternation for a moment before responding. “What?”  
  
“There’s no—My brother is dead, and I—well, I might walk again, but not run fast enough to survive out there. What’s the point of trying to heal me? Are you going to keep me as a pet? I’d rather you just ate me.”  
  
“No—I didn’t go to all this trouble just to let you give up.” Razz let a little growl into his voice.  
  
The bunny glared defiantly back at him, his eyes decidedly teary. “You’re the one who’s opposed to excessive cruelty, aren’t you? What kind of life is this for a rabbit?”  
  
Razz glared back at him but found he couldn’t argue. Of course he hated wasting all that effort, but it was a small consideration compared to the rabbit’s suffering.  
  
“It’s not just sentiment. With this injury, and without Red, I have no chance. You could just give me to your brother,” Edge suggested, features softening.  
  
“No—no, I’d rather do it myself.” He’d rather not do it at all, but if someone was going to eat Edge, he felt it was his duty, as the wolf who had taken responsibility for him.  
  
“Very well.”  
  
“Okay. If that’s what you want.” Razz couldn’t quite believe the words were coming out of his mouth. But on the other hand, he couldn’t quite believe he was having so many qualms about eating a rabbit.  
  
Edge nodded and met his gaze steadily. There was still a glitter of tears in his sockets, but his ears were relaxed, even as Razz reached out to pick him up. Razz had avoided handling the bunny more than necessary, assuming it would be a traumatic experience for the much smaller monster. He was light in Razz’s hands, and he seemed a lot calmer than Razz felt as he raised him to face level, forcing the bunny to stare death in the teeth.  
  
Razz shut his eyes and opened his jaws. He tilted his hands to let the bunny slide onto his tongue. This was much simpler with the cooperation of his prey. In his mouth, Edge was a tangle of limbs even with half of one missing. Razz thought about giving him time to straighten himself out, but decided it would be more merciful just to get on with it. Edge stayed limp on his tongue, and Razz swallowed him down as quickly as possible.  
  
When the weight of the rabbit had settled in his stomach, Razz took another minute to compose himself. Was he really getting this emotional over a rabbit? He didn’t want Slim asking any uncomfortable questions. But he was already late with dinner. And Slim was already curious about what he’d been hiding in his room all this time. He’d just have to tell the mutt to mind his own business.  
  
***  
  
Slim had been hungry, but not enough to intrude on Razz’s privacy. Whatever he was doing with that bunny, he would no doubt be snappish if interrupted. And in the end it wasn’t that much later than usual when he came down and started dinner.  
  
But something was off. Razz seemed irritable when he called Slim to the table—no, defensive. And—Slim couldn’t believe it—he had either been crying or was in danger of crying. What could have produced such a reaction in his normally-tough brother?  
  
“Vegetarian enchiladas again?” Slim pretended he hadn’t noticed.  
  
“I didn’t have ingredients for anything else,” Razz said with a sniffle as he served his brother.  
  
Slim was hungry and the food was actually pretty good, in spite of his complaints, so he dug in. “Wait. Where’s yours?”  
  
“I’m not—not hungry.”  
  
“What’s wrong, m’lord?”  
  
“Nothing! I’m just not—” Razz left off, ears flat, a hand over his stomach. “I can’t do this,” he growled.  
  
“M’lord?”  
  
Razz ignored him, turning away and retching.  
  
“Are you sick?” Slim started to stand up.  
  
“No, no, I’m fine, I just—” Razz waved him away, keeping his back turned as he hunched over a kitchen chair—and threw up.  
  
Slim jumped to his feet. Razz was sick! Hopefully it was nothing serious, but he would still do whatever he could to make him comfortable. He probably needed something to eat that wasn’t this rich, for starters—   
  
“Calm down, mutt.” Razz turned to face him, licking a strand of drool from his jaw. “I guess—it’s time for you to meet someone.”  
  
Slim followed Razz’s gaze down to his hands, which were clutching something to his bandanna. Razz opened them to reveal the bunny Slim had seen in his brother’s room.  
  
“It’s our new roommate.” Razz grinned.  
  
“Wh-what?” Slim dropped back into his chair.  
  
“So you’re not allowed to eat him,” Razz warned severely.  
  
“But—he’s a bunny?” Slim looked from the rabbit to his brother and back. It was curled up, possibly unconscious, in Razz’s hands, and coated with a translucent purple substance. “And—you ate him, didn’t you?”  
  
“I’m allowed because he trusts me. We’re friends.”  
  
Slim dropped one ear, confused. “A bunny is your—friend? Roommate?”  
  
“Yes. Not a pet. Roommate.”  
  
“M-m’lord…”  
  
“I trust that you’ll keep your baser instincts under control. Or at least satisfy them elsewhere.” Razz turned to reach for a hand towel.  
  
“You mean I can hunt for r—”  
  
“Slim! Not in front of present company!” Razz snapped over his shoulder as he started cleaning up the bunny.  
  
***  
  
Razz had been worried that Edge would be upset with him for failing to go through with it. The rabbit had judged his life unbearable, and gone through the unpleasantness of getting eaten, all for nothing. But Slim had fashioned him some crutches—not that Razz couldn’t have done it better, but he was much busier than his layabout brother—and Edge seemed content enough now that he was free to roam the whole house, although he needed help to climb the stairs. The bunny was naturally neat and did a good job of keeping the areas he could reach—mostly the floor, so far—pristine.  
  
One evening when Slim had gone out to Muffet’s—Razz didn’t approve of his friends or activities, but at least he was doing something other than lying around—Edge was working on navigating the kitchen.  
  
“I can almost climb onto the counter on my own,” he grumbled.  
  
“Yes, but it’s a lot of effort. You should work up to that. You’re still healing, you know.” Razz lifted him onto the counter.  
  
Edge grunted dismissively, dismounting from Razz’s hand while keeping hold of his crutches.  
  
“I completely understand. But you have to be patient.”  
  
“I don’t want to be a burden.”  
  
“Don’t worry about that. I took you out of that trap, so I’m responsible for you.”  
  
“That’s exactly it.” The bunny looked away, bashful. “You’ve done so much for me and there’s nothing I can do to return the favor.”  
  
Razz looked down at the bunny. He could admit to himself now that he just wanted Edge to be happy—he felt responsible for the bunny’s happiness. Sure, it was partly Blueberry’s fault, but it had been Razz’s decision to put Edge in this situation. He didn’t want to say that, though. “You did let me eat you,” he said instead.  
  
“Do—do you want to do that again?” Edge looked up at him, ears low and fearful.  
  
Razz laughed. “No, that’s okay. Just make sure Slim doesn’t eat you to stop you cleaning his room.”  
  
“That’s a risk I’m willing to take,” Edge said grimly, then smiled. Razz wasn’t sure he’d seen the bunny smile before.  
  
“Seriously, though, if I were you I wouldn’t tempt Slim. He knows he shouldn’t, but—”  
  
“I was prepared to be eaten before, anyway,” Edge cut him off. “Besides, I can take Slim. Do you doubt me?”  
  
Razz laughed again. “You’re saying my brother could be beaten up by a rabbit?”  
  
Edge’s sockets widened in alarm. “I didn’t mean to imply—”  
  
He broke off as the front door opened. Slim came in and closed it behind him.  
  
“Hey mutt,” Razz greeted him from the kitchen.  
  
Edge stood up straight, ears perked, then dropped his crutches to the kitchen floor and leaped down after them.  
  
“Edge!” Razz scolded. “Don’t jump from that height!”  
  
But Edge was already running—Razz was impressed how fast he could go now—up to the other wolf. “Slim! You’re tracking snow all over my clean carpet!”  
  
Razz grinned at the sight of Slim’s tail curling up as he was badgered into taking off his shoes by a monster about the size of his hand.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Razz sees Blue again

It had been almost a month since Razz had freed the rabbit from the trap; he had long since come to the realization that life before Edge was quite unimaginable. Their rabbit roommate quickly became a part of their household, finding his place even with Slim’s dislike of him. As of late even that had started to die down, partly due to the gratuitous amount of rabbit-themed puns he was now able to generate. It also didn’t hurt for him to find out about Edge’s brother… Slim was many things (lazy, irresponsible, a general slob…) but unempathetic just wasn’t one of them. Perhaps he was triggered into thinking of what it would be like to lose his own brother. Razz himself had many moments at which he would zone out thinking of the bunny’s plight; on the worst days he found himself wondering about Red - about how his final hours must have been. 

Since adopting the bunny Razz took up a strict vegetarian diet - the only one to know of this was Slim, the one wolf Razz could trust with absolutely certainty on the issue. Even if he could trust Alphys to stay quiet, he couldn’t trust that she wouldn’t mock him for this choice. Or worse; think that it somehow made him less fit for the guard. He disguised this new eating habit as ‘penny pinching’, telling anyone who asked that he was eating at home rather than going out, and spending his hunting break working on paperwork to get overtime.

“Lieutenant, I don’t like seeing you here alone at lunch again!” Alphys said one day, carrying with her an extra lunch. Razz looked at the bag, brow quirked.

“Forgive me, Captain - I was hoping to catch up on follow-up reports while we don’t have any new cases,” he said, quickly clicking out of the game of solitaire he had open on his computer. Underneath was the final report they received which he had filed almost a week ago. 

Alphys humphed. “I admire your work ethic, Lieutenant, however I am legally required to give you a break at noon.” Reaching into the bag, Alphys retrieved a neatly cut square of bread stuffed with cheese and some sort of deli meat. She shoved the sandwich on Razz’s desk, hardly looking him in the eye. “Undyne made too many by mistake today - you should eat it so it doesn’t go to waste!!” she said, completely unable to admit her worry for her closest friend. Razz kept his smile down as he saluted her on her way out. 

It took Razz almost a full minute of debating on whether to eat the gift or not. The deli meat couldn’t have come from a monster, so was it really so bad? Alphys might return next time with prey if he didn’t eat the sandwich now. 

Razz got through one bite before yanking the meat out, dashing outside and throwing it out into the woods. He hates being wasteful, but he absolutely could not stand to consume it; what a shameful wolf he’d become…

—-

Razz spent the rest of the day in a dour mood, so it was no improvement to hear the chipper hums of Blueberry rolling through the woods. The sounds radiated from down the hill, slowly approaching. Razz grumbled to himself. Wonderful; there wasn’t much Razz could do to avoid confrontation now. There were few trees here and the path stretched for another acre or so. Even if he dashed out of sight, not only would his scent give away his avoidance, but he would eventually be seen with how little cover there was.

Razz hadn’t seen Blue in almost as much time as he’d had Edge in the house. The other had called a few times, wondering when their next training session was; Razz really didn’t want to hold what had happened against the other wolf - after all, it was only natural for wolves to eat bunnies. If Blue had found a method that worked better for him then it really wasn’t Razz’s place to stop or correct him, no matter his personal feelings. Regardless, it had been difficult for Razz to maintain a friendship with both his trainee and his house guest, so it came as quite the relief when the voicemails and texts started tapering out. In the back of his mind, Razz hoped that it wasn’t because Blue felt unappreciated or offended.

Bracing himself for the awkward reunion, he waited for Blue to come into sight. Razz made himself busy on his phone, feigning ignorant boredom. The cheerful hums broke off before Blue came into view, and for a moment Razz wondered if he’d caught Razz’s scent, until he heard Blue’s voice bounce off the hills.

“No, no - it’s probably a lot bigger than you’re thinking… … … well, of course not! I would have to go all the way across town for that!”

Blue’s laugh still sent short waves of warmth through Razz; the kid really did have a lot of potential in the Guard. The conversation was one-sided as far as Razz could tell - perhaps Blue was on the phone with someone? He could hardly tell what it was they were talking about, but the passion that Blue spoke with still gave Razz a sense of interest, as it almost always did. Stars, he hadn’t realized how much he missed his friend…

Finally, Razz could see Blue’s ears poking out over the curve of the mountain. His head was turned down, ears perked with interest as he spoke to someone that Razz couldn’t yet see. He never turned his eyes away from the phone, fiddling with some app so that he could time his reunion perfectly. What would he say after all this time? The awkward nervousness came rolling back as he waited to see who Blue could possibly be talking to.

Razz determined the timing to be right; he lowered his phone and waved, turning to face his old trainee. “Good afternoon, Blue,” he said, masking his nervousness with a stony expression. “It has been a while, hasn’t it?” 

Blue’s ears immediately flattened, eyes going comically wide as he froze. For all of his strengths, the one thing that Razz couldn’t teach that kid was how to hold a poker face. He would’ve been irritated, if he weren’t so crushed by that reaction. Was Blue really that upset to see him? He would’ve had a good reason - Razz shouldn’t have ignored him for as long as he had.

But after a moment it became clear that Razz wasn’t entirely the source of Blue’s anxiety; Razz’s eyes drifted lower to Blue’s hands. Unobscured by the curvature of the hill, Razz could see now that Blue was carrying something. It was like a box with a handle… a crate like the ones in human movies where they keep their small animals. The Guard in Razz wanted to demand to know exactly what was in Blue’s hand and what he was doing with it - obviously Blue was up to _something_ he didn’t want to be caught doing - however, the part of him that was Blue’s friend couldn’t ignore the fear in the other wolf’s eyes. 

Taking a deep breath, Razz pocketed his phone. “I see you have something there,” he said calmly, keeping his professionalism at a cool moderate. “Would you mind enlightening me on exactly what you are transporting there, Blue?” 

Blue shook his head, taking a step back. “N-no, Lieutenant,” he said, practically throwing the crate behind his back. Razz bit back a groan - Lieutenant… no one called him that unless they were on duty or up to something. 

“I sure hope you know that transit in Snowdin is marked as capital-licensed goods only - it would be section three in your training manual,” Razz said, his tone slowly seeping into something more stern. Surely Blue hadn’t taken up a side job of smuggling contraband.

Blue shook his head again. “No, no - it’s nothing like that,” he denied quickly, sweat beading at his brow. “It’s just… personal items…”

“I see,” Razz said, unconvinced. He moved forward, encroaching closer on his friend. “Then you won’t mind if I just take a look and see what it is you have.”

Blue’s ears remained flat, his face screwed up as he fought to come up with some excuse to keep Razz out of the crate, but Razz was fast. He marched himself right next to Blue and snatched the crate, holding it up to eye level to look inside.

Razz was immediately hit with the scent of bunny before he could even process what he was seeing. Sure enough, inside there was a small rabbit curled in the far corner, eyes blown wide as he stared at the wolf gazing in at him. In the dark it was hard to see what it looked like, though he thankfully didn’t smell blood or death. That didn’t stop him from feeling sick at the sight; what was his friend going to do to this poor monster?

“Please,  _ please _ don’t be mad,” Blue said, shrinking in on himself. Razz’s gaze falls back to a blushing, guilty Blue. Razz took a deep breath before handing the crate back to him. 

“I’m not mad,” Razz said, forcing himself to keep Blue’s gaze. It was hard, knowing exactly what the other had in store for the rabbit. The poor thing even looked just like the one that Blue killed in front of Razz. “Just… promise me you’ll swallow this one. None of that… biting stuff.” It probably wouldn’t be much better, but it would at least be painless and relatively quick.

Blue’s eyes welled with tears and he shook his head. Razz bit his lip to keep from sighing. How can someone be simultaneously so intimidatingly cruel and yet so weak? Gently Blue placed the crate on the ground and folded his arms around his middle.

“I’m sorry… I know I’m a failure as a wolf and I don’t blame you if you don’t want to train me anymore,” he whined, his head tucked into his chest. “I’ll resign if you want - you shouldn’t be forced to be around me.” 

This time Razz did sigh - this self-deprecation shit was  _ not _ something he would allow from anyone. “Blue. You’re not-”

“I can’t even kill a bunny!!” he sobbed suddenly, practically falling into Razz’s arms. Stunned still, Razz could only stiffen and catch Blue as he latched onto his middle. Between Blue’s trembling cries and the sheer absurdity of the moment, Razz hardly had time to process the words that Blue spoke.

When they did get through, Razz spoke.

“Wait… what do you mean you didn’t kill the bunny…?” 


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What did happen to Red, anyway?

Red had never been in so much pain in his life.

Red had always been told when a wolf or a fox caught a rabbit, they would swallow their victim whole. The scenario kept him up many a night when he was a kit; after all, what worse fate could there possibly be??

Apparently, _this_ was the alternative, and it was _much_ worse.

The walls of the wolf’s stomach closed around him, squeezing him gently from every side as he struggled to breathe. He no longer had the strength to clench his teeth in pain, his face lying limp against the wet walls. The sharp waves of pain had been replaced by a steady throb that washed through him at a steady pace. Ribs that were held together only by his magical matrix bent and groaned as the world around him constricted once more.

And yet, worse than the pain were the bones sitting just next to him - the severed limb that once belonged to Red floating in a pool of blueish-green magic. He saw it when he first fell into the pocket of magic. He refused to look again.

Surely he’d been unconscious by now; time was hard to gauge from inside of a wolf, though his mind seemed to phase in and out of consciousness. The liquids that surrounded his limbs weren’t there when he was first… …but now they covered his ribs. At first the greenish tint led Red to believe it was some sort of acid meant to dissolve him - as if he hadn’t suffered enough! But it had been there for a while, and so far his body hadn’t suffered any ill effects - in fact the pain died down some after time had passed. If he were more awake maybe he could process what that meant, but his injuries and the steady, warm pressure on all sides kept him in a deep fog.

That was, until those soft walls disappeared.

Red woke with a gasp from a nap he didn’t remember taking - completely disoriented as he fell out into a bony paw.

“Oh no… That doesn’t look good,” A voice above him spoke. Red’s chest constricted; he coughed and heaved as his ribs pounded, trying to catch breath that seemed to leave him as soon as he sucked it in.

For just a fraction of a second, he couldn’t remember where he was or how he got there - it was as if he had never been eaten. But the moment his ribs were moved by the hands wrapped around him the memories came back, as if prompted by his pain. Red squirmed, instinct driving him to get away from the danger surrounding him.  

“Ah- no! Don’t move… you’ll hurt yourself!!” the wolf said, lowering him down onto a padded surface. Red took the advice - more because he was rapidly running out of stamina rather than any sense that the wolf might want to help him; no doubt this was the fiend who ate him - brutally dismembering him and crushing his ribs to powder. A slow shudder rolled through the rabbit as he recalled the event for the first time in clarity.

Why was he outside the wolf again?

“Easy - I promise I’m not trying to hurt you,” The wolf spoke. Red shuddered, not even trying to believe the words spoken to him by the wolf. It was probably the dumbest statement he’d heard in his life, and if he weren’t on the brink of dusting yet again he would likely be upset enough to call the other out. As it was, he simply lay still and allowed the wolf’s soft paws to explore his body, dancing around every injury with care. The wolf tutted after the examination. “This is no good… you should have healed over by now…” The tone rang through Red’s ears and finally brought him to awareness enough to speak.

“You… t-tried to k-kill me,” he said, spitting each syllable with poison. “How d-dare??”

“No no no!” The concern on the predator's face as he flattened back his ears and shook his head made Red sick. “I wasn’t- I didn’t want to kill you; I was healing you!” Red opened his mouth to return when the wolf gasped; Red realized just a moment too late that he had already been checked. “Oh, no wonder you're not healing!!! You poor thing… how did you survive so long with only one HP…?”

Red flushed; he hated those words and everything they implied. Unable to articulate himself under the circumstances, Red allowed his head to loll to the side. He could _feel_ the other staring. Beyond embarrassing - it was dangerous to let _anyone_ know his weakness. Rabbits hardly ever checked each other - they couldn’t afford to waste magic like that - so it was easy to keep it secret from them. The only one who had ever been aware of this before was his brother. No one else was ever supposed to find out.

Yet now the second monster who knew was wolf that just _ate him_ _._

why was he even still alive?

“Oh! Um…” The wolf's ears canted awkwardly. “Like I said, I never actually wanted to hurt you…”

...What? Did he say that last part out loud… he did - he could still feel the aftermath of the words resonating in his throat. A cough and a heave later, the wolf spoke again.

“You weren’t even supposed to remember being eaten - all the other bunnies healed in half the time and seemed to forget everything after they left…” Blue admitted, lifting up one of Red’s arms to inspect.

Wait… _arms???_

Red slammed his head to the side, suffering through the vertigo to see the miracle. He gazed wide-eyed at the arm that so little time ago was torn from his body. And yet - there it was, fingers and all.

“wha…?” Red slurred, head already filling with cotton once more. The wolf hummed.

“That might be why it took so long… I’ve never tried to reattach a limb before…” The wolf admitted. An awkward laugh parted his teeth; Red shivered at the view. “S-sorry, I really was way too rough with you…”

“ya think, asshole???” Red snapped, suddenly outraged. Was this… just a game to the wolf? Was Red little more than a plaything - not even a meal, but a toy to be bothered and tortured for the other’s amusement? He couldn’t afford to be incapacitated, if he could even recover from all of this. Edge would need him to store for winte-

_EDGE!!!_

“I don’t think leaving you out here would be a good idea…not with those ribs and that HP…” the wolf continued, oblivious to Red’s emotional breakdown. “I’d say you’ll need at least another week inside me - maybe two.”

 _That_ caught Red’s attention once more, bringing him back to the present as he stared directly at the wolf. Surely he couldn’t mean…

“yer gonna eat me… again???” he whined, hating how pathetic he sounded. His ears pinned back against his skull as the wolf slowly picked him up once more.

“It’s the only way I can heal you,” the wolf explained, voice neutral and smooth. “Don’t worry - you’ll go back to sleep once you’re swallowed and then when you wake up this’ll all be a bad dream.”

Red felt horrified; as if forgetting this nightmare would make it any better!! And he had already been in the wolf’s stomach once, and he had been quite aware the whole time… at least, he thought he had. It had felt like a couple hours at most but who knew how much time had actually gone by - would there still be time to save his brother from the trap?

“w-wait!” Red called as the wolf opened its maw once more. Those teeth would haunt him for years to come for sure; but that was a problem for another day. Swallowing back mortal terror, Red continued. “how… h-how long was I in there… before?” he asked. If it’d been less than a day then maybe Edge could still be found; Red could possibly even convince the wolf to heal his brother if he were lucky. Even if Red could have somehow gotten Edge’s leg out of the trap, the injury itself could turn out fatal if it led to infection, or to him no longer being able to run...

“It’s been about a week and a half,” the wolf replied. “It’s a bit longer than I normally do - but you’ll probably need another two weeks to fully recover.”

Red felt his soul sink… oh. that was… a lot longer than he had thought. There was no hesitation or a hint of a lie in the wolf’s voice, and no motive to tell him anything other than truth.

So that meant his brother was likely gone by now. Red went limp and allowed the wolf to raise him towards the horrifying mouth. At worst, it would eat him for good this time. At least then Red wouldn’t have to accept that his bro had likely already died.

But instead of getting it over with, the wolf paused. “...I really am sorry about all of this,” He said, as if he had caused Red a sincere inconvenience. “I was just trying to show off to my friend; I didn’t mean to get so carried away…”

“whatever,” Red muttered, looking away from the the teeth that were far too close for his taste (heh). “just get on with what yer doin’.” Nothin’ left for Red to do now anyways.

The wolf looked at him for a moment, ears folded back in guilt. “Give me your jacket,” it said. “I’ll fix it up for you.”

Oh, right. His arm had been restored, but his sleeve hadn’t. Red tried to shrug off his jacket, but it hurt too much. So he just sat there as the wolf pulled it off him, grimacing at the pain as it pulled on his arms or cloth slid against his ribs. Setting it aside, the wolf finally stretched its jaws wide and slid him gently in onto its glowing blue tongue. Red squeezed his eyes shut so he wouldn’t have to see. Even though it was trying not to jostle him, every tiny motion echoed through his ribs in agony. He hoped the wolf was right that he would lose consciousness—whether it was because he was being healed or digested no longer mattered to him very much. Not after he’d effectively abandoned Edge to his fate in the trap …

The wolf’s tongue was soft if a bit damp. It might have been comfortable if his ribs weren’t shattered to bits. And if it wasn’t the gateway to certain death—although from what the wolf said, it wasn’t. He wasn’t sure he believed the wolf, but he didn’t have an alternate explanation for why he was still alive. Maybe it was some cruel illusion, the wolf making him live through the experience of having his limbs ripped off before eating him for real. Maybe the wolf liked its prey desperate and grateful, so it made them think it could heal them so that they’d beg to be eaten. He couldn’t quite believe his arm and leg had been bitten off, since they were clearly there now. The damage to his ribs was far too real, but he wasn’t entirely sure if it was a little better for having spent some time in the wolf’s stomach. Whatever the truth was, he didn’t really care at this point. Let the wolf win if it wanted. He’d lost the moment he’d failed to find help for Edge.

He was starting to get impatient for the wolf to go ahead and swallow him. Not enough to move at all—that hurt like hell—but enough to open his eyes. He regretted it when he found himself staring down the wolf’s throat, lit blue by its magic. At that moment the wolf’s tongue finally pushed him in. He was aware that he yelped at the sharp pain induced in his ribs by the sudden movement, and the ecto-flesh of the wolf’s throat surrounded his skull, warm and soft but still strong and irresistible. The tongue and magic flesh pressed against him as the wolf swallowed his skull, and then his ribs, and he lost everything in a blur of pain as he was squeezed down the wolf’s throat.

—

When he woke up, it took a while to gather his thoughts into anything coherent. He lay where he was with his eyes closed. Everything hurt. Whatever Edge had done to treat his injuries had helped, but he still ached all over, and whether it was the pain or a side effect of some medicine, he felt groggy and disoriented. The burrow was warm, unusually warm, and—really wet—what was this? Had Edge prepared him some kind of medicinal bath? It must have taken a lot of effort; he really didn’t deserve to be pampered like this, especially after he’d left his brother caught in that trap— Wait, what? Had that really happened? Why couldn’t he remember how Edge had gotten out? He was suddenly overcome with a need to see his brother alive and safe, although of course he was, because who else would take care of Red like this? He finally opened his eyes and tried to look around. Moving at all sent pain shooting through his ribs, and something must be wrong with his eyes too, because what he was seeing made no sense. He was surrounded by some kind of lumpy glowing wall, mostly blue, dripping with blue-green fluids, which were also pooled around him. This wasn’t their burrow. Edge wasn’t here.

It all came rushing back to him. The wolf—the wolf had eaten him. Twice, apparently. Maybe it wasn’t lying about healing him, either, because his ribs did feel a lot better than before, so long as he didn’t try to move. And the magic suffusing the whole place was doing its best to soothe him back to sleep. There was no point in fighting it. Including the previous session, he’d been in here for days and days, weeks even, according to the wolf, and if that was true it was far too late for him to have any hope of rescuing Edge. So the only thing he wanted to do now was sleep through as much of the rest of his life as possible. It looked like the wolf had been telling the truth about healing him, but he would be just as glad if he never woke up again. Then he wouldn’t have to remember what had happened to Edge.

\-----

But he did wake up. At least he was less disoriented this time; it was the second time he’d been eaten and then suddenly found himself back outside the wolf. This time he found himself resting on a fluffy white towel, huge for him but just a hand towel for the wolf who was looking eagerly down at him.

“How do you feel?” One of the wolf’s hands loomed over him, and Red twisted away from it as the wolf tried to pick up his arm to examine him.

“a little stiff,” he answered. It rubbed him the wrong way to cooperate with the wolf who had chewed him up and eaten him, but he supposed he owed it that much after it had restored him from the brink of death.

“Is that all? That’s great! Now, I’m not sure how much you remember, but don’t be afraid. I healed you. And I’m just going to set you free back in the woods where you came from, okay? I’m all prepared. Here, have some lettuce before we go.”

The wolf set him down, towel and all, on a surface—it felt soft—and deposited some lettuce on the towel next to him. Red didn’t really want to accept its hospitality, but he was famished and too exhausted to resist, so he picked up the edge of the lettuce leaf and nibbled at it. After his recent experience, he had a newfound appreciation of being able to move short distances and pick up an object in both hands.

He looked around as he ate—it was a large space but clearly indoors. “where am i now?”

“This is my room,” the wolf chirped brightly. “I can’t let my brother see you. So don’t be too loud. Oh, and here’s your jacket!” It laid the garment out in front of him. One sleeve had been crudely reattached, the stitches and the thread itself far too large. Red shuddered at the reminder.

“uh, thanks,” he said anyway. “what’s that over there?” There was some kind of box or cage on the bed with him.

“This is what I’m gonna use to carry you back to the forest. I hope you don’t mind. It’s just that I’ve learned the hard way that if I try to transport a bunny with just my hands, they sometimes get scared and bolt while we’re still in the middle of town and—there are a lot of foxes here…”

Red gulped, imagining what might have happened to the bunny that had taught the wolf that lesson. “fine, i’ll go in the carrier.” It wasn’t like he had any dignity left to preserve.

He finished most of the lettuce, and then got to his feet stiffly, pulling his familiar jacket back on as the wolf opened the door of the carrier for him. Its innocent cheer and apparent concern for his wellbeing made it hard to hate the wolf, even after the immense pain it had put him through. The real reason he ought to hate the wolf was for catching him while he was trying to help Edge. He deserved everything else that had happened, for letting Edge down. And it wasn’t as if the wolf had known about that situation, so he wasn’t sure if he was angry with the wolf for catching him, or at himself for getting caught. It was too much for him to think about right now. It was easier to focus on the wolf’s rambling, irrelevant chatter, as he made himself reasonably comfortable on the floor of the carrier.

——

Razz listened to his friend explain patiently, sitting on a stump as the other cried and sniffled into his bandana. Razz made a mental note not to touch the cloth ever again.

He listened as Blueberry told him everything about his strange disability that prevented him from digesting prey. Instead of fully breaking down the monsters he swallowed into digestible magic, his body produced healing magic that strengthened and recovered the prey inside of him. Apparently it still provided him with _some_ nutrition, but his body would just continue to expend energy attempting to heal the damage done to his prey until Blue was forced to regurgitate or remove them.

“That’s why I have to bite them when they’re outside of me,” Blue explained. “It is the only way I can digest any of what I catch; the raw magic they bleed helps sustain me. And half the time when I cough them up they don’t even remember it!!”

Razz nodded along. He felt a muted sense of relief when he heard the reasoning behind Blue’s strange actions; despite how ashamed Blue was of his deformity, it would be far worse to let a wolf known for torturing its prey in to the guard. They were supposed to protect others, and displaying such low empathy was absolutely cause for concern.

And… it made Razz just a bit more comfortable calling Blue his friend.

Razz somehow found it in him to wait until Blue’s heartfelt story was over to ask the question burning in his mind since Blue began.

“So, the rabbit that I saw you eat… is still alive?” He said, keeping his hopes low just in case. Blue sniffled once more. His head bounced up and down as he looked down at his feet.

“Y-yeah, he’s in the crate… i-it took a long time to heal him… it was actually pretty exhausting but I kinda felt bad,” Blue said. It took him almost a full minute to look Razz in the eye again; by the time Razz registered the eye contact he was fully enveloped in a tight hug. Blue’s face lay buried into the crook of his neck as he took comfort in the other. “Thank you so much for listening to me, Razz… I’ve never told anyone about this before; you’re such a good friend.”

Razz sighed. He could afford a moment to be with his friend rather than reunite the brothers; there was time. The two sat there together for a long while, just taking in each other's presence before Razz finally disconnected and looked over Blue, brow creased with concern.

“Have you been… eating properly since I’ve last seen you?” He asked, suddenly concerned that because he had been healing the rabbit, Blue has been left unable to eat for weeks. Monsters could survive for a while between meals (Razz skipped his fair share growing up) but it still wasn’t good for them.

Blue gave a half shrug. “I was drawing a lot of energy from the rabbit while he was inside of me, it just... took a bit more to heal him.” Razz could see how truly drained his friend was now that he was looking closely at him. His ears were drooping just a fraction, and his eyes were just mildly unfocused. Razz clapped his back.

“Let me take care of the rabbit, Blue,” Razz stated, giving his friend a patient smile. “You go home and get some rest - eat something you can digest properly. We can train again as soon as you’ve recovered.”

Blue’s whole being seemed to glow at Razz’s words, excitement painting his features for the first time since Razz had seen him today. “Yessir! Thank you!” he said, hand flying to his forehead to salute. He stood, leaving the crate with Razz as he turned back the way he came. Before he passed over the mountain he gave one final wave. “And please don’t eat that rabbit like you did the one in my trap - It took a lot of work to heal him back up!”

“Wouldn’t dream of it, Blue.” After all, Razz was known for despising wasted effort. He waved his final goodbyes before picking up the crate and holding it at eye level. The rabbit was still there, huddled on the plastic floor of the crate. With the light now facing the entrance, Razz could easily see the torn coat and face of the rabbit from almost a month ago. A triumphant smile broke across his face.

“Huh. So you’re Edge’s brother?” Razz spoke, touching the bars of the crate with a claw.  The rabbit growled, teeth tightly clenched and bared. Razz merely rolled his eyes. “Relax - I promised Blue I wouldn’t hurt you.” Regardless of the fact that Razz wouldn’t anyways… his appetite for live prey has long since been banished. “Besides, Edge would be pissed at me if I ate his brother after he spent so much time in mourning.”

“my bro is dead,” the rabbit growled, tears welling in his eyes. The scent of rage and helplessness filled Razz’s senses. “and that prick just said _you_ killed him.”

“Bold of you to assume I eat everything I catch,” Razz said, lowering the crate. It was obvious the bunny didn’t believe him; that was fine. Home was only ten minutes away, and showing was always more convincing than telling. He tried to keep a decent pace without running - it would look rather suspicious for him to be seen sprinting with a mystery package in tow. Internally he felt _giddy_ \- Edge’s brother was alive, in his hands, right then!!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Razz brings home a bunny.

Razz’s house was on the outskirts of town, isolated enough that he was comfortable addressing the bunny as he fished out his house key to let them in. “Don’t worry, bunny. You’ll see your brother in just a minute.”

“what, you wanted to eat me in the comfort of your own home?” the bunny retorted, glaring at him through the bars.

“I told you I’m taking you to your brother, you ungrateful little mouthful,” Razz snapped back, losing his patience.

“yeah, maybe to the same place you sent him, but that don’t mean i’m even gonna see his dust.” The bunny started off angry but dissolved into tears .

Razz sighed. He should be gentle with the bunny after all the trauma it had been through, but the whole incident had been a bit of an emotional roller coaster for him as well. “Look, just give me a minute—”

“blue told you to let me go in the forest,” the bunny accused, furious through his tears.

“No he didn’t. Weren’t you listening? Just shut up for a second.” Razz finally opened the door. “I said I was gonna ‘take care’ of you,” he reminded the rabbit as he stepped inside.

“Razz? Who are you talking to?”

Edge’s voice was soft and fragile. He must have been dusting the TV stand, because he’d left his bunny-sized dust cloth there and dropped to the floor in front of it. 

“Come and see.” Razz made sure the front door was closed behind him and set the carrier down. It took him a moment to figure out how to unlatch the carrier door, and then he stepped back, letting it swing open. 

Red didn’t make any move to come out. Edge cautiously approached, on his crutches. When Edge got close enough to see inside the cage, he stopped, frozen. 

“boss?” Red’s voice was small and hopeful. “this isn’t another wolf trick?”

“Red?” Edge called back. “You’re alive?”

Suddenly Red shot out of the carrier and tackled the other bunny, knocking him to the carpet in an embrace. Edge hugged him back. Razz felt like he was intruding on a private moment by watching, but he couldn’t look away.

After a moment, Edge pushed Red off of him, rolling them both over so he was on top. “Get off of me, you—” He broke off with a little sob. “They told me you were dead.”

“Maybe I was.” Red relaxed but kept his arms around his brother’s ribs. “It was all so confusin’ and—and unreal. But what happened to you? Last I remember, your leg was caught in a trap.”

Edge pulled far enough away that they could see each other’s faces and nodded matter-of-factly. “It was.”

“how’d you get out?”

“That wolf there, Razz—he helped me escape.”

“you musta got the good wolf.” Red grinned, as if he were happy for his brother’s good fortune.

“Well, he did sort of … bite my leg off.”

“what?” Red gasped.

“There was no other way to get me out of the trap.” Edge seemed a little sheepish about it.

“boss … stand up … lemme look at ya.”

Edge extricated himself from Red’s hug—he’d asked Edge to stand up but not actually let go of him—and picked up one of his crutches to support himself as he got to his foot.

Red sat up as well, looking his brother up and down. Edge seemed embarrassed of his condition for a moment, but quickly drew himself up straight and proud.

Red turned to Razz with a snarl, which he had to admit was almost intimidating in spite of his diminutive size. “how dare you!”

“Hey, cottontail, I’ll have you know I saved his life!” Razz snapped back, but then faltered. He’d saved Edge’s life, right? At least, he’d thought that was what he was doing. But if Blueberry hadn’t been going to kill him—what would have happened? If things had gone differently, Blueberry might have given Edge to Razz as a snack and he would have eaten him without a second thought. But if what Blueberry had told him was true—and Red’s being alive was pretty convincing evidence that it was—Edge hadn’t been in any danger from Blue himself. In fact, the odd wolf might have healed the bunny’s mangled leg, rather than severing it like Razz had. Was this all Razz’s fault? Surely Blueberry carried a good deal of blame for the bunnies’ suffering, after he’d crunched Red up like that, but perhaps Razz was culpable for the worst of what had happened to Edge. Without Razz’s interference, Edge might have been healed alongside his brother, or at worst waiting at home worrying about his brother until Red reappeared.

“Razz? Are you okay?” Edge’s voice brought him back to the present. “Red, you mustn’t be harsh with him. I know he’s a wolf but we’re his guests, and he really did save my life.”

“No—no, I didn’t,” Razz whispered. “I just maimed you for no good reason.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Razz. You had a very good reason! I know. I was there.” Edge had collected his other crutch, and Red had moved to stand between his brother and the wolf, as if he could protect him.

“Yes, but—remember?” Razz said, laughing sadly. “I didn’t want to let the same thing happen to you, that I’d just seen happen to Red. But Red’s fine!”

“i wouldn’t say ‘fine,’” Red growled.

“And you woulda been fine too, with two legs, if I’d just left you there. Most likely.”

Edge considered this for a moment, his expression grim but his ears relaxed. “Maybe. But Razz, you can’t know what would have happened if you’d made different decisions. As … unpleasant … as it was, losing my foot and almost being eaten by Slim—”

“What!?” Razz looked up sharply from his repentant slouch.

“Oh. I wasn’t supposed to tell you about that. But as unpleasant as it all was, I could have easily died if things had gone a little differently. Rabbits’ lives are, unfortunately, cheap, in this world. As it worked out, Red and I are both alive and reasonably whole. I consider myself lucky.”

Razz glanced around uncomfortably. “But—”

“You acted mercifully based on the information you had at the time,” Edge assured him, placing a restraining hand on Red’s shoulder. The smaller bunny still looked ready to attack him. “And I agreed with your decision, if you’ll recall.”

Reluctantly Razz nodded. A silence settled between the three, and after a moment the two bunnies went back to cuddling into each other. Their voices were low, practically whispering as they try to catch up on what happened in each other's absence. 

Without much warning Red turned.

“do you fuckin’  _ mind? _ ” he snapped; it took Razz almost a full minute to realize he was talking to him.

“Right, sorry,” Razz said, stepping back as Edge scolded his brother for his poor manners. Razz walked across the living room, brushing droplets of melted snow out his armor as he prepared to go back out on patrol. “I’ll be back before dark - I’ll text the mutt about our new guest.” Razz explained as he walked out the door. 

\---

Dinner was… awkward to say the least. Slim was less than thrilled to have _another_ bunny living with them, though he never made even an attempt to object. Razz wondered if maybe he was starting to warm up to the idea of rabbits as monsters; after a brief, awkward period of Red threatening him for trying to eat his brother, the two of them seemed to more than tolerate each other. The two of them got into a passive-aggressive pun war over dinner, striking jabs at the other while Edge and Razz ignored it. 

Red didn’t eat much, despite obviously being hungry. Edge excused them from the table early, discreetly taking a napkin stuffed with vegetables from their plates as Red helped him up the stairs. It was good, Razz thought, that Edge had someone to lean on now, physically and mentally. Though Razz always offered support, the bunny had always been understandably hesitant to open up around him. Razz couldn’t blame him; in Edge’s situation he would show as little weakness as possible.

Immediately after dinner Slim went to bed, as he usually did, and Razz took care of the dishes. His nightly routine went unchanged for the rest of the evening, eventually ending with his teeth brushed, sitting in bed to read. He checked on the two bunnies when he entered the room - they were curled up around each other, relaxed. Red’s fingers stayed interlocked with his brother’s even as his chest heaved with snores; the sight made Razz smile as he gently peeled back the covers to settle into bed.

“Razz,” Edge’s soft voice came almost as soon as the wolf had settled with his book. Razz glanced up from the pages and eyed the taller rabbit slowly clambering up to the bed; soon Edge stood next to Razz’s knee, his foot nervously tapping the covers. “I wanted… to talk to you about something.”

“What is it?” Razz asked, placing the book down on the nightstand. Today had been a rather big shake-up in their normal routine and they hadn’t quite addressed that yet. “Your brother is free to stay with us, if that’s what you’re wondering,” Razz stated quickly, “and… of course you are free to leave now that you are healed… and have someone to take care of you.” Though personally Razz would be disappointed to see Edge go - and not entirely because Edge would likely die outside his home.

Thankfully, the rabbit shook his head.

“No, no - these living arrangements are more than adequate,” Edge assured. He attempted to keep balance on his single leg, eventually collapsing into an awkward half-sitting position. “I wanted to talk about possible… treatments… for my condition.”

Razz raised an eyebrow. “And what condition would that be?” The only thing wrong with Edge now physically would be the missing leg, and that wasn’t exactly something that therapy or exercise could fix. Perhaps the emotional trauma was what he was referring to? Though Razz hardly thought Edge the type to want counselling. 

“My… leg,” Edge said, picking awkwardly at his bones. It took him a moment to continue, emotion prickling in the air as he spoke. “I know it seems rather impossible; however, my brother was able to almost fully recover with the help of that other wolf!” Edge said, looking up at Razz with shining eyes. “He didn’t tell me how, but he did tell me that he’d been injured far greater than this, and now he’s fine!!”

Razz frowned, ears drooping with dismay. Edge’s eyes glint up at him, revealing the tears he must have shed before Razz came into the room. He just looked so hopeful - Razz couldn’t possibly be the one to crush that glimmer with the harsh reality, however Edge didn’t deserve to be led on with any false hope.

“Edge…” He finally spoke, leaning forward so the two were closer to eye-level. The rabbit kept his eye contact firm, brows creased and nose wrinkled in anticipation. “I… don’t know if Blue will be able to heal you-”

“Well of course you don’t!” Edge cut him off. “I don’t know either! That’s why we can ask…”

Razz frowned. “Have you talked to Red about this?” He said. After all - who better than he to tell Edge of Blue’s… unique healing ability? Besides, it wasn’t as if Blue was completely innocent when it came to predatory behavior - Razz had a sneaking suspicion that if it weren’t for his unusual disorder Blue wouldn’t think twice about devouring a rabbit whole. 

“No, not yet,” Edge admitted. “But… I feel he doesn’t want to talk about it right now - that’s why I’m asking you.” He paused, seeming to consider his next words before speaking. “As your  _ friend _ .”  

Razz took a deep breath, head falling back against the wall as he slowly let the air back out. Shit…. How the fuck was he supposed to respond to that?

Edge seemed to notice the chink in Razz’s armor; the wolf was almost impressed by how quickly Edge was to exploit it.

“It would only be a simple question,” Edge continued his pitch. “Just ask if he would be willing and able to do… whatever it was he did to my brother, to me!” 

Razz groaned, eyes falling shut. “...Okay, fine,” he said. It would be good to know if it were possible anyways - regardless of whether Edge would be willing to go through with it after he found out that it meant being swallowed alive. “I’ll ask him when he comes over to train…”

Edge’s face was schooled neutral, though Razz could see the smallest fluff in his tail, and a new, hopeful glimmer in his eye. Still, the rabbit stood at attention, hand propped up against Razz’s knee for balance. “Y-yes, very good,” he said, covering the emotion in his tone with a cough. “Well. I wish you a pleasant rest of your evening.” 

“You too, Edge,” Razz said. He held the sheets steady for Edge to scale down, watching him until he reached the pen where he and his brother stayed. They had long since cut out a small door for Edge to come and go as he pleased - making the area a room within a room for him. Perhaps Razz could find one of those oversized dollhouses at the dump to make into a proper home for the two.

If Edge decided to stay, that is. 

The thought made his chest feel cold and hot all at once. Instead of dwelling on it, Razz returned his book to his hand and flipped the pages, slowly drifting off to the domestic sounds of the house creaking and the bunnies’ soft snoring.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Perhaps there's a way for Edge to restore his injured leg.

“Before we get started with training, the bunnies want to talk to you.”  
  
“What bunnies?”  
  
“The bunny you gave me the other day. Red. And his brother.”  
  
“You still have him?” Delight spread across Blue’s face. “You really didn’t just eat him! I’m so glad! I woulda hated to waste all that energy healing him.”  
  
Razz grimaced. Surely Blue could’ve avoided spending some of that energy by not hurting him so badly. “Of course not. Anyway, they have something to ask you.”  
  
“They do?” Blue seemed surprised for a moment, and Razz expected him to protest that the bunnies ought to never want to see him again. But he quickly brightened. “Sure! Where are they?”  
  
“Come inside.” Razz let him in and then went up to his room to fetch the bunnies from their box. “Blue is here to see you,” he announced. Red stiffened but allowed himself to be picked up and then clung to the wolf’s arm next to the more relaxed Edge. Razz carried them down the stairs.  
  
“Hi!” Blue greeted them cheerily. “I don’t think I’ve met you,” he said to Edge. “You must be Red’s brother, right? He mentioned you before! What did you say your name was?”  
  
“It’s Edge,” Razz supplied when the bunnies hesitated.  
  
“Nice to finally meet you, Edge! What did you two want to talk to me about? Does Red need another session of healing?”  
  
“no!” Red pressed closer to Edge, trembling.  
  
“Actually, I want you to heal me,” Edge said, sitting up as straight and dignified as he could while being carried. “If you can.”  
  
“Huh? Are you injured?”  
  
“Yes.” Edge swung his legs over so that he was sitting on Razz’s arm like a bench, the missing foot clearly visible.  
  
“no!” Red yelled again, trying to pull Edge deeper into Razz’s arms.  
  
“Don’t be silly, Red.” Blue tutted. “He’s clearly injured; his foot is completely gone!” He addressed Edge again. “What happened to it?”  
  
“I lost it in a trap,” Edge said dryly.  
  
Realization dawned on Blue’s face. “You’re—! You’re the bunny that I caught that day in my trap! I thought Razz ate you!” He laughed, throwing his skull back in amusement. “I bet you wish you’d just stayed in the trap now, huh?”  
  
Edge watched him stonily.  
  
“Well, since it’s kinda my fault, I guess I ought to try and fix it for you. That is, if I can.”  
  
“Do you think you can?” Edge returned.  
  
“Hmm.” Blue struck a thoughtful pose. “Yeah, I think so. Maybe. Probably. It’s not as bad as Red was, but with him, I still had his arm and leg available to reattach. Or maybe just to serve as raw materials to regrow. I’m not actually sure how it works!” He smiled at his own ignorance. “Red, do you notice anything different about that arm and leg?”  
  
Red hissed at him and hid behind Edge.  
  
“Aww, I thought we were friends.” Blue moped for all of three seconds, then brightened. “Anyway, it’s worth a shot! Give him here, Razz, and I’ll see what I can do!”  
  
“boss, NO!” Red grabbed onto Edge’s chest and held on like a koala. Edge held tighter to Razz’s arm to stabilize himself under his brother’s added weight.  
  
Razz looked down at the bunnies doubtfully. “Blue, I think you should explain the procedure to him a little more first.”  
  
“Oh! Didn’t you tell him about it, Red?”  
  
Red just shuddered, glaring at the blue wolf. Blue looked at Razz. Razz shrugged, as if it hadn’t been cowardly of him to keep what he knew of the details from Edge.  
  
“What? Isn’t it just healing magic?” Edge sounded nervous at first but quickly covered it over with impatience.  
  
“He’s gotta eat you,” Razz said, his voice flat.  
  
“Eat …?” Edge repeated. “And you didn’t tell me until now?” His ears pressed back.  
  
Razz’s ears tilted a little too, but before he could answer, Red sobbed, “i’m sorry, boss! i just—couldn’t stand to talk about it. don’t really wanna relive it.”  
  
Edge stroked his brother’s ears, glancing around as if embarrassed to be seen doing so.  
  
“I’m sure you don’t have to make up your mind right now,” said Razz, feeling responsible for Edge finding out this way. “Blue can easily come again if you decide you want to try.”  
  
Edge paused a moment before answering. “No, I’ll do it.”  
  
“boss, no!” Red’s grip loosened and he slid down into Razz’s arms next to Edge. “please, i can’t bear it.”  
  
“It’s all right, Red. If he didn’t hurt you, I’m sure he won’t hurt me.”  
  
“didn’t hurt me?” Red repeated incredulously. “he bit off two of my limbs!”  
  
“I mean after that,” Edge backtracked, flushed with embarrassment.  
  
“you know what was the first thing he did after that? crunched through my ribs!”  
  
Edge went pale.  
  
“but yeah, other than that, i guess he didn’t really hurt me! if you don’t count squeezin’ me down his throat when my ribs were half dust.”  
  
Edge looked away. “I’m—That’s not what I meant. He didn’t digest you, did he?”  
  
Red glared at him, tears in his eye sockets.  
  
“Actually I did, a little bit,” Blue volunteered. “That’s why I chewed on him, so he’d bleed some magic for me to absorb. Since I can’t digest bone.” The last part was the only thing that made him avert his eye lights in shame.  
  
“See? He can’t digest bone.” Edge kept his face turned away, not quite burying it in Razz’s bandanna.  
  
“says him!”  
  
“It’s true, I can’t!” Blue had gotten over his shame and now admitted it cheerfully. “If I could, you wouldn’t be here. Not that I’m complaining—I’m happy I finally got to make a bunny friend!”  
  
“we’re not friends, not if you’re gonna eat my brother.”  
  
“But he’s asking me to!”  
  
“I’m asking you to heal my leg,” Edge corrected him. “And you’re telling me it would require me to be—eaten. Why is that, exactly?”  
  
Blue shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve just never been able to digest you bunnies. And one day I thought maybe injuring you first would help—and it does! But I also discovered my tummy is just full of healing magic for some reason, so all the bunnies come out good as new!”  
  
Edge looked uncertain, his ears half-cocked.  
  
“So like I said, it’s worth a try,” Blue continued. “It’s really perfectly safe, so the worst that can happen is your foot doesn’t come back.”  
  
Edge looked uncertainly up at Razz.  
  
“I believe it’s safe,” Razz assured him. “I can’t imagine why else Red would still be alive.”  
  
Red laughed mirthlessly. “don’t think i won him over with my natural charm, huh?”  
  
“You didn’t have time.” Razz smiled at Red. Tears were flowing down the bunny’s cheek bones and dampening Razz’s clothes.  
  
Edge hesitated. “I’ll do it.” He turned to his brother. “It will be okay, Red.”  
  
“please, no,” Red insisted. “you don’t hafta do this. i can help you with anything, anything you need, just, please—”  
  
“Go back upstairs, Red. It’ll all be over soon.” He paused. “How long do you think it will take?”  
  
Blue hummed to himself, thinking. “If it goes smoothly, at least a week. If it turns out to be harder than it was with Red, it could take longer.”  
  
Edge’s ears sank. “Well, the—the worst part will be over soon. Stay with Razz until I get back.”  
  
“don’t go, boss, please!” Red was openly begging. “i just got you back. that whole time i was—i was inside the wolf, i thought you were dead. please don’t do this.”  
  
“Red, I can’t—If there’s a way to—I can’t just—Ugh.” Edge gave up trying to explain himself. “You’ll look after him, won’t you, Razz? You and Slim. Keep him safe until I get back.”  
  
“Of course,” Razz agreed. He would have to be very firm with Slim. It was unpleasantly easy to picture Red losing hope and begging the wolf to put him out of his misery. Then again, if Edge told him to wait, he would probably suffer through it. Razz had observed him to be very loyal to his brother.  
  
“Then let’s get on with it,” said Edge. He ruffled Red’s ears one last time, and then fidgeted as he considered how to get down from Razz’s arms. Razz shifted Red to one side so he could extend an arm as a bridge for Edge to make his way to Blue. Edge crawled toward the other wolf. “Take Red upstairs, please,” he instructed as Blue plucked him up.  
  
“no, no, no, no,” Red sobbed over and over.  
  
Razz cradled the distraught bunny. “Red, it’s his decision. Or are you saying no, you want to stay?”  
  
“nooooo,” Red said again, trailing off with a hiccup. He got enough of a hold on himself to meet Razz’s eyes. “don’t take me away.”  
  
“Maybe you shouldn’t look,” Razz suggested softly.  
  
Meanwhile, Edge had revealed the bones of his leg for Blue to examine. “All right!” the wolf said, cheerful as ever. “The first thing to do is reopen the wound.”  
  
“What?” said Edge.  
  
“Wait, what?” said Razz.  
  
Red continued sobbing quietly.  
  
“Well, if it’s all healed up the magic won’t change anything, will it?” Blue explained. “Besides, if you’re not bleeding then there’s really nothing in it for me, is there?” He seemed to notice he was being stared at. “What? I’m not gonna bite him anywhere else.”  
  
“Are you sure you—” Razz started to say, but Edge spoke over him. “Go ahead.”  
  
Blue lifted the bunny seated on his hand to his mouth and parted his teeth. Edge was anxious, but he hid it well, and if Razz hadn’t lived with him for over a month he might not have been able to read it in his features. Blue positioned his teeth over the end of Edge’s leg where Razz had severed it, and bit down. If there was any crunch it was drowned out by the pained shriek. It hadn’t come from Edge; he was gritting his teeth, a bead of sweat rolling down his skull. It had come from Red. Razz started petting his ears, as he’d seen Edge do, but the bunny just kept trembling.  
  
Edge glanced uncertainly in their direction, but Blue didn’t seem to see any reason to stop the proceedings. He tilted his hand to let the bunny slide into his open mouth. Edge instinctively scrambled to grab onto his fingers, but then steeled himself and deliberately let go. In a moment, he disappeared between Blue’s jaws. Blue closed his mouth after him, humming appreciatively. In another moment, the wolf had swallowed. Razz would never have thought it would bother him so much to see a wolf swallowing a bunny whole. Blue turned to him with a satisfied sigh that revealed the empty space where Edge had been, proof that the bunny was gone.  
  
***  
  
Edge’s soul raced as the wolf’s jaws shut behind him. No one could see him here inside the wolf’s mouth, but he couldn’t drop his tough facade—whether out of habit or because he couldn’t admit how terrifying this was even to himself without losing it. If he didn’t maintain an iron grip on himself, he would turn and claw at the wolf’s teeth to get back out—assuming he could even get any purchase on the slippery blue tongue. As unhelpful as the tongue was to him when he tried to get a foothold to keep himself from sliding down the wolf’s throat, it was very effective for the wolf at pushing him deeper instead. He grimaced as the tongue crowded him back, turning his skull to just barely avoid his face sliding along the slick surface. Not that it made much difference: The small space was full of liquid magic—wolf saliva—and in only a few moments the pressure of the throat around his feet had climbed up his legs and torso to envelop his skull and arms, so he had a face-full of wolf magic anyway.  
  
He spluttered for a second but that just made it worse, so he grimaced and tolerated it as the blue walls pushed him down. It seemed like a long way, but perhaps that was just because it was so unpleasant being squished from all sides like this. His arms were trapped stretched above him, and he couldn’t even fold back his ears in displeasure because there wasn’t space.  
  
Finally it seemed to get worse, tighter, and then his legs were dangling into a more open space, followed soon by the rest of him. He plopped into the wolf’s stomach, and sat there for a moment tamping down the urge to panic and bolt. There was nowhere to run. He was surrounded by soft blue ecto-flesh, dripping with magic. Some of the liquid magic was more green than blue, and it seemed to be collecting around his injured leg, which was still bleeding, staining the blue fluids purple.  
  
Edge felt faint. Was that supposed to happen? Could he be bleeding to death from his injury? Probably not—Red had been injured much worse, and he’d been fine; and Edge himself had survived the initial loss of the foot. Unless Blue had decided to digest him after all … But he couldn’t, right? Then again, if a bunny just happened to bleed to death inside Blue’s stomach, he’d probably be perfectly content to absorb all the magic and dispose of the dust somehow.  
  
It was too late for doubts now. He didn’t really want to sit here conscious for a week while his leg healed anyway—if it healed. At this point, he had to trust that Blue knew what he was doing. The wolf had experience with healing bunnies, and it didn’t sound as if he’d lost any—but would he have cared enough to take note if he had? As useful as his healing abilities might be, Blue still seemed strangely indifferent to rabbit suffering. And of course, it was all Blue’s fault that he and Red had needed any healing in the first place.  
  
Edge couldn’t dismiss his uncertainties about the situation, but it wasn’t enough to keep him awake in the face of this increasing drowsiness. He didn’t relish the idea of lying down in the wolf’s stomach fluids, but he was already covered in blue magic goop anyway. And he couldn’t really avoid it. At least he tried to collapse in such a position that the green magic would cover what was left of his leg.  
  
He couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer, but he could imagine Red lying here in the same place as he was now, injured—no, mangled—in pain, scared, expecting to die, probably blaming himself for failing to get help for Edge when he was caught in the trap. If the fluids near his eyes were stained a little purple too, at least there was no one here to see it.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> More fun with healing vore

Razz went light on Blue in their training, concerned that it would have some effect on Edge, even though the other wolf insisted it wouldn’t. He checked on Red before he went about his other duties, and again when he got back to make dinner for the household. The bunny was curled up in a corner of the box in Razz’s room and didn’t seem to have moved at all the whole time he was gone.

He should say something, he thought. It would be dreadful for Edge if anything happened to Red while he was gone, and although he didn’t seem like he was Falling Down … Razz could imagine it getting to that point. But he had no idea what to say that would be comforting. He tried to make his voice gentle. “Hey, Red. Hang in there until your brother gets back, okay? I’ll bring you some food.” Well, it was better than nothing, he hoped. The bunny didn’t respond, even when Razz reached in and stroked his ears.

Red refused to eat that day and barely ate the next day, after a lot of cajoling and reminders that his brother would want him to take care of himself. On the third day when Razz looked into the box at lunchtime, it was empty—well, there were the pillows, dishes and tiny cups he’d provided for the rabbits, but no sign of Red. He immediately feared the worst. At least there was no dust in the box—and Razz was certain Slim wouldn’t have eaten the bunny after Razz’s emphasis on how incredibly forbidden that was. But he would feel a lot better after he found Red.

“Slim, have you seen—oh.” He got his answer as Slim, stretched out on his back on the couch, turned his skull to look at him, revealing a glimpse of Red tucked away inside the fluffy collar of his jacket. “Huh. I guess he likes you all right.”

“I like him too—”

“You better not say ‘as a snack’ or anything dumb like that.”

“No, of course not. For one thing I’d come up with a good pun for something like that—maybe, he’d go good with fries. After all, you can’t make a proper burger without a bun, right?”

Razz seethed.

“But I was gonna say, he gives me a good excuse to lie around. Gotta take care of the bunny. I’m his emotional support wolf.”

Razz turned away with an irritable growl and went back to being an actual productive wolf.

***

After a week, Blue announced it was time to check on Edge. Razz led him into the house.

“Red? Come over here if you wanna see your brother!” he called, then had second thoughts. If, in the worst case scenario, something had happened to Edge, he would rather be able to break the news to Red gently than have him there to see it first-hand. But it was too late now. Slim popped into existence in the living room, holding the bunny clasped to his chest. Red immediately squirmed loose and ran up to Blue.

“where is he?” he demanded, folding his arms impatiently.

“Settle down, bunny! It takes a bit of concentration to bring him back up.” Blue turned his back to the assembled skeletons for a moment to spare them the worst of the sight, and when he turned back around he had a rather sodden Edge draped limply across his hands. Razz was relieved to see the bunny was basically in one piece.

“boss!” Red reached out to touch Blue’s leg, as if he were thinking of climbing up it.

“Here you go, settle down.” Blue lowered Edge to the carpet. Red ran to his side and hovered uncertainly. Blue poked Edge with one finger. “Wake up, bunny! Your brother’s worried about you!”

Edge stirred and Red fell on him in a hug, taking no heed of the blue slime still coating him. Razz moved around to get a better look at Edge’s leg and frowned. “It didn’t work.”

Blue tried to pick Edge up again to examine his leg, but Red growled and wouldn’t let go of him. So Blue just pulled on the leg in question to stretch it out where everyone could see. “Huh. It’s healed over again, but I don’t know if I managed to make the bones any longer. Bunny? You probably know best what it looked like before. Take a peek and tell us if you see any improvement.”

“Let go of me, Red.” Edge stopped returning the hug and glared, but there was no anger in his voice. Red didn’t let go, but loosened his grip enough that Edge could sit up and evaluate his leg, with Red draped down his back like a very heavy, affectionate cape. After a long moment, he said, “It is a little better, but not much.”

“I guess my magic had to heal the damage I did reopening it and just didn’t have enough to do very much more,” said Blue with a defeated shrug. “But if we repeat it a bunch more times, it should still work.” He picked up the bunnies. “Wanna go again, Edge?”

Edge’s ears folded back, though his face was only tense. He didn’t say anything to either consent or object.

“no!” shouted Red, but it was pretty muffled because his face was buried in Edge’s scarf.

“Wait a minute, Blue,” said Razz, ready to physically restrain his arm. “Let’s talk about this. Maybe we can figure out a way to speed it up. And even if Edge wants to keep going, you should eat some real food first.”

“maybe even wait until tomorrow,” suggested Slim, who had sat down to watch from the couch.

“That’s a good idea,” Razz agreed. “Slim, can you handle heating up some leftovers for Blue? I wanna brainstorm solutions to speed up Edge’s healing.”

Slim’s ear twitched at the request, but he rose obediently and disappeared into the kitchen.

“So do you have any ideas, Blue? You’re the one with expe—” He remembered the both rabbits had some experience on the receiving side of the procedure. “With the most experience,” he finished.

“Hmm, well.” Blue sat down to think, letting Edge hop back out of his hands, Red still clinging to him. “Like I was saying, it’s possible I just need some raw materials, bone matter, to reconstruct the missing bones out of.”

“But what are you gonna do to get it, bite off some other bunny’s arm?” Razz laughed a little at the absurdity.

“That would work.” Blue was completely serious.

Razz stared at him a moment, trying to find the words to say he’d just been joking without calling the other wolf an idiot or a psychopath.

“i’ll do it,” said Red. He finally let go of Edge and stood on his own feet, rolling up his right sleeve. “here, take it.”

“Okay,” said Blue.

“Red, no,” said Razz.

“Brother, I forbid it!” said Edge.

Razz placed a restraining hand on Blue’s chest. “Even if you were gonna—remember, you’re gonna eat some real food first? You shouldn’t starve yourself for weeks on end just to get some bunny magic in ya.”

“it’s not like i need it to walk,” argued Red. “heck, i don’t even really need to walk.”

“If it’s not really being used as raw materials and more straight-up reattached, a leg would be way better,” said Blue. “Otherwise Edge could end up with a hand where his foot should be.” The wolf laughed, showing his fangs.

“sure, take it,” said Red, leaning over to look at his left foot.

“Absolutely not,” said Edge, getting to his knees to bodily pull Red farther away from Blue. “Red, you will not sacrifice yourself for me like that.”

“Especially since you don’t even know if it’ll work,” added Razz.

“It would be a neat experiment!” Blue remarked. “I’m curious whether it would work with bone from a different bunny or not. We could try the arm first—”

“Blue, are you going to bite off Red’s arm— _again_ —to satisfy your curiosity?”

Blue’s enthusiastic expression faded as he looked back at Razz. “Y-nnnnno?”

“No,” Razz confirmed the correct answer.

“Okay, no. I can try it on some other bunnies.” Blue brightened again.

Razz was stern. “Blue. D’you think some bunnies are gonna volunteer for this kinda—macabre experiment?”

“Sure! I mean, it beats getting digested, right?” Blue was undaunted.

“You’re not gonna digest them anyway,” Razz pointed out.

“They’d be fine. If it didn’t work with the mismatched limbs, I could just put ‘em back in with their own limbs.” He paused, thoughtful. “Unless the limbs dusted or something.”

“Blue. Don’t.” Razz asked himself since when he cared this much about the welfare of random hypothetical bunnies he hadn’t even met. “Let’s just focus on Edge for now, please?”

“Well. I mean, I could crunch up another part of him and hope that the bits of bone divide themselves between that and the missing foot, but I’m not sure it would work. I kinda think he’d lose bone mass overall.”

“no,” said Red, clinging onto Edge again. “you can—crunch me—and put me in there with him. what about that?”

“No!” Edge bapped him on the skull.

“but worst case scenario, i just heal up like i did before. and best case, i get pretty much healed and so does your leg.”

“I told you no!” Edge yanked on Red’s arm to break his balance and then pushed him onto the carpet. “So stop volunteering!”

“If we can’t get rabbit bone, all we can do is repeat the treatment and hope it doesn’t take like fifty times,” Blue shrugged. “Although—I wonder if it has to be _rabbit_ bone.”

Razz didn’t like the way Blue was looking at him. “I suppose I wouldn’t miss a distal phalange— _if_ it was certain to work, but it’s not. So maybe we can work out a schedule—one week on, one week off, something like that. So everyone has time to recover between treatments.” He looked down at the bunnies. Edge had stopped pinning Red to the carpet, and Red had sat up in order to cling to him again.

“I’ll have to reopen the wound every time,” said Blue, “but maybe with the right tools I can make it a smoother break. Less damage to heal before I even get to the rebuilding part.”

“Yeah, we should try that. First have something to eat, we’ll do your training, and we can talk about it more tomorrow.”

Red didn’t let go of Edge, but looked up at him hopefully. Edge seemed a little more relaxed now that the prospect of being eaten again immediately seemed to be off the table.

Slim came back with some tupperware, a fork sticking out of it, and Razz rolled his eye lights. Couldn’t his brother at least put it on a plate when serving a guest? The lanky wolf held it out to Blue wordlessly.

“Thank you!” Blue said and dug in, ravenous after not eating any real food for a week. The bunnies watched somewhat nervously.

Razz thought about getting Edge cleaned off—and Red, too, now that he’d been rubbing up against his brother—while Blue was eating, but it didn’t look like he’d have time. “Slim, can you take care of washing up the bunnies? Blue and I need to start our training.”

“Of course.” Slim gathered up the bunnies and left the room again.

“Wow, they’re not afraid of him at all,” Blue observed. “Want me to wash off this container?” It was now empty.

“No, of course not. Let’s get started.” Razz took it from him and left it in the kitchen. “I won’t go easy on you today, now that you’re not starving and you don’t have any bunnies to take care of!”


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red is unhappy and Slim is a creepy wolf.

Slim soon gave up on trying to wash the bunnies separately. Red wouldn’t let go of Edge, and prying him off just to have him latch on again hardly seemed worth the trouble. So he set them on top of a stack of towels—Razz wouldn’t approve of getting blue magic on the clean towels, but there was going to be plenty of laundry anyway—while he filled the bathroom sink with warm soapy water.  
  
“Let go of me, Red!” The taller bunny finally lost patience as Slim turned back around, ready to put them in the sink. “I’m not going to bathe in my clothes!”  
  
The smaller bunny relaxed his grip enough that Edge was able to extricate himself. “please don’t go back in there, boss. i can’t take it.”  
  
Slim hovered, turning off the water before the sink overflowed, but hesitant to interrupt the bunnies’ conversation by grabbing and dunking them.  
  
Edge’s scowl looked angry, but the bunny was enough like Razz that Slim could tell he felt awful about worrying his brother like this. “Stop that, Red. This is the only way,” he said as he shed his clothes.  
  
“at least let me go with you.” Red’s voice was flat and dull, which somehow seemed more alarming than if it had been filled with emotion.  
  
Edge opened his mouth to reply, when Slim swooped in and scooped them both up. “yep, this is the only way to get you two clean, but of course you can both go together,” he said, depositing them in the soapy water.  
  
“Red, you’re still wearing your jacket!” Edge scolded, as if Slim had given him a chance to take it off.  
  
“eh, it’s gonna get wet in the laundry anyway,” Red shrugged.  
  
“How are you going to get all that wolf goop off of your bones though?”  
  
“it’s only superficial on me. you’re the one that was swimming in it for a week.”  
  
Edge grumbled, and Slim decided to throw him a bone. “well, since you’re in the water anyway, red, you may as well wash up properly. after all, i drew this bath special for you rabbits.”  
  
“yeah?” Red looked up at him.  
  
“yeah, it’s a bun-ble bath, see?”  
  
“Ugh!” Edge turned his back on both of them, retrieving a little piece of sponge that Razz had cut off the corner of a larger sponge for the bunnies and kept on the edge of the sink by the faucet.  
  
Red laughed. “that was just claw-ful,” he said, but he shrugged off his jacket, and Slim plucked it out of the water, tossing it on the soiled towel.  
  
***  
  
Edge avoided bringing up the topic of his next treatment with Red, furtively pinning down the date with Razz and Blue. It wasn’t that hard, as Red tended to hide away whenever Blue stopped by before or after his training sessions. The night before the appointed day, he sat down on their shoebox bed where Red was already curled up, setting aside his crutches, rehearsing different ways to tell Red what would happen tomorrow. Part of him wanted to just get on with it without telling his brother, let him find out when Edge was nowhere to be found after Blue left, but that would be cowardly. And although it might spare Red the anticipation between then and now, it could also leave him even more worried after the event.  
  
“Red?” he said, even though he hadn’t figured out how he wanted to phrase the news.  
  
“yeah, boss?” Red was sleepy and well-fed, as content as Edge had ever heard him.  
  
“Tomorrow I’m going to—Blue is—I’m going to start another ‘treatment.’”  
  
Red sat up sharply. “boss, please, why do you have to—let him do that to ya? you’re doing fine as you are, aren’t ya?” He gestured at the crutches.  
  
“Yes,” Edge agreed hesitantly, “these work fine, for our current situation, but—I don’t want to live in Razz’s house forever. I appreciate all his help but I’m not his pet and he shouldn’t have to provide for me like this.”  
  
“he knows you’re not a pet. he’s never once called you a pet.”  
  
“Red, we live in a box in his bedroom and he gives us food and water. How are we not his pet bunnies?”  
  
“he takes care of slim too, but he’s not a pet.”  
  
“That’s different. They’re family.”  
  
“fine. we’re family, so i’ll take care of you then. you still don’t need to go through with this … ‘treatment’ thing.”  
  
“Come on, Red, you know you can’t keep me alive out in the forest when I’m like this.”  
  
Red’s ears drooped miserably. “i know i haven’t been much of a go-getter in the past but i’ll make it work, boss, i promise.”  
  
Edge folded his arms across his chest and looked away. “Face it, you love being a pet. But I don’t. I want to get back to my life.”  
  
“i told ya we aren’t pets. maybe i oughta do more to earn my keep, but you’re—well, you know razz thinks of you as a roommate but i think you’re kinda like a live-in maid with all the cleaning you do.”  
  
Edge snorted. “We sleep in a shoebox.”  
  
“if the shoebox is botherin’ ya we can get a proper bed.”  
  
“The bed doesn’t matter.”  
  
Red crawled around to look him in the face. “please, boss, i hate this. i can’t stop thinking maybe you won’t come back out this time.”  
  
“You know it’s safe. You’ve been there.”  
  
“yeah and it didn’t feel very safe. think about it. imagine you were hearin’ it for the first time. he’s a wolf, and he’s gonna swallow you whole, and he says it’s for your benefit? how ridiculous does that sound?”  
  
Edge sighed. “I know it’s … weird. But it’s working, and it’s the only way to … make things like they were before.”  
  
“boss. things can’t go back to how they were before. our old lives aren’t waiting around for us—the other bunnies probably wrote us off as dead weeks and weeks ago. and i—being chewed up by a wolf changes you, even if you miraculously survive it.” He shuddered.  
  
Edge took mercy on him and petted his ears soothingly. “I know it’s even rougher on you considering your experience. But this is something I have to do. Just wait for me. Everything will be okay. Razz and Slim will take care of you.”  
  
Red whined unhappily, but leaned into Edge’s hand and settled down on the pillow again.  
  
***  
  
Red forced himself to attend the proceedings, watching sullenly, not bothering to beg Edge to reconsider. He’d made his opinion—his wishes—his needs—clear, repeatedly, and if his brother hadn’t been swayed by now, he wouldn’t be put off by so little a thing as the view of his own legs disappearing down Blue’s gullet, soon to be followed by the rest of him. Red had tried to watch it all but kept flinching away. First Blue had shaved a layer of bone off Edge’s injured leg to force it to re-heal, and Red should have been there to hold his hand through the procedure, but he’d stayed back with Slim, watching from a distance. Edge was too proud to ask for comfort but Red had seen him grasp Razz’s phalanges, which were ostensibly only there to hold him in place.  
  
Now the hard part was over for Edge, who was probably already asleep and might not wake up until Blue let him out to see how much he’d healed. But the hard part for Red was only beginning. He would try to sleep through as much of it as possible, too, but without the healing trance he couldn’t avoid waking up at least long enough to eat, and sometimes desperately wishing he wasn’t conscious made it ironically harder to fall asleep. As Blue and Razz left for training, the latter with a sympathetic glance toward Red, the bunny buried his face in Slim’s ankle. The taller wolf scooped him up and walked over to the couch, settling into their customary position with the bunny on his chest, free to crawl into his jacket if he felt the need for additional warmth or closeness. But for now Red just lay there, despondent.  
  
Slim stroked his phalanges down the bunny’s ears and back to his fluffy tail. “This is really hard on you, huh?”  
  
“mm,” Red answered.  
  
“you ever wish blue had just eaten ya? instead of healin’ ya like that.”  
  
Red considered what would have become of Edge if that had happened. Razz would have rescued him from the trap, and the cost of Edge’s foot would have been justified. And perhaps without Red’s return Edge wouldn’t be so fixated on restoring everything to the way it had been before all this had happened. Edge would have been fine. Red had no wish to be eaten and digested, of course, but …  
  
“yeah, when he was healin’ me. hurt like hell. and after, when i thought boss was dead. no point in just me survivin’.”  
  
“if you want, i could … y’know … eat you, retroactively.”  
  
Red lifted his skull to stare at the wolf that had earned his trust over the last few weeks. Slim’s expression was impassive. “ha. you wolves, you have a one-track mind, don’t ya?”  
  
“is that a no?”  
  
“yes, it’s a no. as much as mortal terror might take my mind off things for a little bit, you know i couldn’t do that to my bro. imagine him gettin’ back and me bein’ dead.”  
  
Slim smiled, relaxed. “yeah, i guess he’d be pretty upset.”  
  
“yeah, and also razz would kill you. so. don’t go gettin’ any ideas.”  
  
“all right. sorry if i fur-rightened ya.” Slim resumed petting him, and after a minute Red dragged himself closer to the wolf’s skull and curled up in the space between his fluffy jacket and powerful jaws. He could have reached out and touched the wolf’s gold fang.


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Edge's treatments drag on.  
> Lots of talk about biting owo

“i want you to bite me.”  
  
“what?”  
  
“bite me.”  
  
“i thought you didn’t want me to eat ya?”  
  
“i didn’t say eat me!” Red recoiled in alarm. “i said bite me—just enough that i’m bleeding, so they’ll put me in there with boss and maybe—maybe i can help heal him a bit.”  
  
Blue’s idea of making a cleaner break when reopening Edge’s wound had helped a little, but the process was still painfully slow. Edge faced it with grim resolve, but Red couldn’t bear the thought of continuing this way for the foreseeable future, spending a week dreading his brother being eaten and then a week waiting for him to come back, repeating the process interminably. Red usually slept in, but today was another ‘treatment’ day and he’d been too anxious to really sleep at all. He’d waited until Edge had joined Razz in the kitchen to make breakfast and gone to wake up Slim in his room.  
  
“maybe actually just—bite most of the way through my humerus, or femur, i don’t care.” He’d found he didn’t have the guts to do it himself, but maybe he could pull the limb the last little bit of the way off, and hope that Blue’s body used the bone and magic at least as much for Edge as for himself.  
  
“i’m not gonna bite ya,” said Slim, frowning.  
  
“you were totally okay with eating me but you won’t just nibble on me a bit even if i’m begging for it?” Red’s ears dropped in exasperation.  
  
“yeah,” Slim confirmed. “biting is just so—ugh. messy.”  
  
Red shook his head in disgust. “hypocritical wolf.”  
  
“self-destructive bunny,” Slim shot back. “just stay here with me until it’s over this time.” He rolled onto his side on his mattress and gathered Red to his chest.  
  
***  
  
“Come on, Razz, don’t go easy on me!”  
  
Razz growled, frustrated. He didn’t mean to go easy on Blue—by this point it was clear that it wouldn’t have any ill effect on Edge. But he had to make a deliberate effort not to worry about the bunny. Red’s obvious distress over the situation didn’t help either.  
  
“I’m not!” he denied, summoning a wave of bone attacks from behind Blue. A somewhat cowardly move, but landing a hit would show Blue he wasn’t going easy on him.  
  
He was too predictable. Blue hopped over the attack and lunged forward, swinging a long bone at Razz’s skull. Razz had the reflexes to block it, but not as precisely as he would have liked, taking the hit on his bare ulna rather than a glove or his own attack. Wincing, he fell back a few steps.  
  
“Are you okay?” Blue dropped his battle stance, his attack vanishing, ears rigid with concern.  
  
“I’m fine,” Razz growled, pretending his arm didn’t hurt where Blue’s attack had hit it. This backfired when a drop of purple magic fell to the snow below.   
  
“You’re not fine! You’re bleeding! Let me look at it.”  
  
“Sometimes you have to fight through a minor injury.” Razz moved to hide the arm.   
  
“Sure but _you’re_ not the one being trained here!”  
  
Blue had improved since Razz had started training him, to the point that he was fast enough to snatch up Razz’s arm even as he tried to move it away.   
  
“It’s fine, you don’t have to—what are you doing?!” Razz snapped as he felt the softness of Blue’s tongue against his bone. He yanked his arm away.   
  
“Licking it!” Blue answered. “It stops it hurting. And—”  
  
“You insult me, Blue. You think I can’t handle such a minor pain?” And after what Blue had put the bunnies through without a second thought. “Besides, I don’t want to be infected with your—”  
  
“You think you’ll catch my healing thing?” Blue asked, his cheer undampened. Razz has just been going to protest Blue’s spit getting incorporated into his blood but he stopped, jaw dropping. “If you did, you could help heal Edge!” Blue continued. “And you could eat your pet bunnies all the time.”  
  
“I told you they’re not pets,” Razz spat. “Let’s get back to sparring.”  
  
“Are you sure you wanna keep going? You’re still bleeding.”  
  
Razz snatched his arm further away before Blue could grab it again, but he still got a drop of purple magic on his hand, which he proceeded to lick off.  
  
“Stop being gross, Blue.”  
  
“What? You can’t catch anything from me without direct contact anyway. It wouldn’t make sense.”  
  
Razz growled. Blue looked like he was enjoying the taste a little bit too much.  
  
“What’s wrong?” Blue asked. “You think I’m gonna mistake you for a bunny?”  
  
Razz shuddered, remembering what Blue had done to Red in their first encounter. “Just try it,” he challenged.  
  
Blue perked up. “You mean if I win a sparring match I get to bite you or something?”  
  
Razz grimaced. “What? No. How did you even—Why would you want to do that?”  
  
“I didn’t say I want—”  
  
“You obviously do.” Razz employed his formidable courage in order not to back away from the other wolf. “Look, why don’t you go home for today. By tomorrow this’ll be healed up and there won’t be any temptation.”  
  
Blue hung his skull, abashed. “All right. Sorry. I’m just maybe getting a little bit tired of Edge every week.”  
  
“Every other week,” Razz corrected him, narrowing his eye sockets. It wasn’t as if Blue wasn’t eating regular food in between. Did that not count to break up the monotony of flavor? Had those few drops of blood given Blue a taste for wolf? Suddenly he could relate to the bunnies in a whole new way.  
  
***  
  
“what happened?” Slim was alarmed when he came down for dinner and saw the bandages on Razz’s arm.  
  
“Nothing.” Razz was clearly embarrassed, trying to hide his arm while he dished out enchiladas. “Just nicked it a little in training.”  
  
“blue did that?” Slim deposited Red at his place on the table and sat down himself. He would have liked to inspect the wound, make sure it wasn’t really any worse than Razz was making it out to be, but there was no way Razz would cooperate.  
  
“Yes. He’s improving.” Razz puffed up with pride as he took his own seat.  
  
“he must be.”  
  
“He does have the best teacher.”  
  
“i guess so. you know what they say, it’s a poor teacher who isn’t overtaken by his student … or something like that.”  
  
Razz’s ears flattened. “He’s not _that_ good!”  
  
“so long as you didn’t bleed in the food,” said Red, earning a harsh glance from Slim.  
  
“I didn’t bleed as much as all that,” protested Razz.  
  
Slim fidgeted, resisting the urge to jump up and examine Razz’s arm whether he liked it or not.  
  
“whoa, he actually made you bleed?” Red dropped his tiny rabbit fork. He looked from Razz to Slim, frowning. “and this is the guy you’re trusting with my brother?”  
  
“I know he’s a bit—eccentric,” Razz admitted.  
  
The other two skeletons waited for him to continue with a “but” and some defense or good point about Blue, but he didn’t. Red picked up his fork, only to play with it anxiously.  
  
“but he’s the only one who can heal edge’s leg?” Slim suggested.  
  
“Yeah,” Razz agreed, seeming distracted. “Even if he does like biting people.”  
  
Red dropped his fork again and bolted, right up Slim’s arm and into the safety of the fluffy lining of his jacket.  
  
“he _bit_ you?”  
  
Razz returned Slim’s alarmed gaze with confusion. “What? No! It was a regular bone attack.”  
  
Slim relaxed, his fur settling. As much as he didn’t like anyone attacking Razz, it was a fact of life in his chosen line of work, and he had no doubt his brother was capable enough to handle it.  
  
“He just suggested it,” Razz muttered, as if he were only thinking aloud.  
  
“what?!”  
  
***  
  
Blue didn’t seem to notice both Slim and Red glaring distrustfully at him when he came over to release Edge from his latest round of healing. Well, Razz supposed, Red was always like that to begin with.  
  
They’d all experienced it so many times that Razz almost forgot to be grossed out at the sight of Blue vomiting up a bunny. Then again, disgust could be a vulnerability, so it was just as well that he was getting over it. At least they’d perfected their routine now so that the mess was contained. Slim held onto Red until Blue had given Edge at least a cursory wipe-down.  
  
Red dashed over to Edge as soon as he was released, but he didn’t latch onto him, perhaps valuing Edge’s dignity over his own need for closeness. He was content to sit next to Edge, giving Blue a wary look. Perhaps he was just embarrassed to show so much emotion in front of the audience of wolves; but then again, they’d seen it all already. Either way, it was much easier to evaluate Edge’s progress without his brother clinging to him. And he got less of Blue’s magic on him, which meant less clean-up.  
  
“How are you doing, Edge?” Razz handed the bunny a bit of tissue.  
  
“Fine,” Edge answered, combing blue magic out of his ears.  
  
“boss?” Red was staring at his bare leg now. “i think you’re getting better.”  
  
The wolves all leaned in to see the state of Edge’s leg, and Razz was surprised to realize he could actually perceive a difference. There were perhaps a dozen millimeters of new bone—not a lot, but it was clear visible progress on the miniature skeleton.  
  
“See? I told you!” Blue grinned widely.  
  
Red’s almost wondrous expression faltered into dismay. If the treatment was working, that meant they would have to continue.  
  
“Soon we’ll find out if I can replace missing bones and not just complete partial bones.”  
  
Red’s ears folded back further. “whaddaya mean?”  
  
“Well, his foot bones are gone entirely,” Blue explained cheerfully. “His tibia and fibula might heal up and then just stop.”  
  
Red growled, and Edge’s sockets widened in concern.  
  
Blue didn’t seem to notice. He looked up at Razz, excited. “I bet it’s because I drank—”  
  
Razz coughed meaningfully, eye lights darting to Slim for a split second.  
  
Blue stared openly at Slim. “Oh, he doesn’t know?” Blue seemed to understand the content of Razz’s message but none of the intent. He smiled and explained, “The other day at training when I made Razz bleed I kinda licked up some of the blood.”  
  
Razz flinched, but Slim didn’t visibly react.  
  
“So clearly that’s what made Edge heal so much this week,” Blue concluded. “Meaning we’ll have to recreate it next time too!”  
  
Slim’s ear twitched.  
  
“That—that doesn’t follow,” said Razz. “For one thing, we don’t know if that’s what caused it. You should do another week with everything the same except that. If you can remember everything you did this week.”  
  
“What, are you scared?” Blue grinned wider.  
  
“Of course not!” Razz answered reflexively. “I just think we should be scientific about it.”  
  
“I am being scientific! I’ve tried loads of things on these rabbits, you know.”  
  
Red clasped his arms around Edge, and Edge leaned into the embrace.


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Blue's training continues

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't miss [Emotional Support Wolf](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15233322), which is set between the previous chapter and this one!

“No, you should do everything the same as you did last time except not drink any of my—anyone’s blood!”

“But—”

Razz crossed his arms. “You know that’s how experiments work. You can only have one independent variable.” Between himself and Slim, they’d convinced Blue to confirm that it really was Razz’s blood that had made the difference, before they would commit to supplying any more of it. Red had been sullenly silent; Razz could sympathize with his preference to get his brother healed by any means possible, but he would be just as glad not to be obligated to donate any more blood.

Blue’s dismay lasted for only a moment. “What if we make a contest out of it? If I can get in a good hit and make you bleed again, I get to lick it!”

Razz faltered, imagining the damage Blue might do in his single-minded determination to draw blood, but hid any reaction beyond a flick of his ear. Technically, if they were doing everything the same, Blue should draw blood the same as he had before; but Razz hadn’t let him do it on purpose, so it wouldn’t be authentic if they tried to recreate the same sparring match precisely. “No,” he said. “We’re just gonna spar normally, and if I happen to bleed any you’ll refrain from being a creepy vampire about it.”

“Un-creepy vampire, then! Okay!” Blue agreed, perkily.

“No vampires of any kind,” Razz revised.

“Aww.” Blue drooped.

Razz focused on his attack patterns, hoping that the danger of Blue drinking his blood would be more of a motivator than a distraction.

\---

“I’m  _ starving _ ,” Blue sighed after their final set. Razz opened up the cap on his water bottle, pouring it over his head before sucking out the liquids. Their training had gone on a lot longer than usual this time. His phantom muscles ached like they hadn’t in a while; Blue had really given him a run for his money this time. Razz hoped that it was just enthusiasm and not Blue’s attempt to get a taste of him. 

He kept a close eye on Blue has he drank, feeling ill at ease around his possibly psychotic friend.

“You better not be asking to drink my blood again,” Razz warned, unable to inject his voice with any humor at the statement that _should_ be rhetorical. Blue just laughed, waving his hands.

“Nah, I need some _real_ food,” Blue said, stretching his arms over his head. Razz’s own arms were far too tired to lift so much, begging the question just how tired Blue actually was. If it weren’t for Razz could he have kept going? Razz’s stamina was enough to outclass even the captain of the guard; just how far had Razz’s trainee come in these past few months? Razz couldn’t keep from feeling at least a _little_ proud - even if it was dampened a bit by his growing discomforts about his friend. 

Blue looked at Razz expectantly; Razz realized that he must have asked him a question.

“Sorry, I missed what you said.” Razz asked, putting the water bottle down. “I must have been distracted.” And tired. Very tired. And sore. Dehydrated… and hungry too, now that he thought about it. 

Blue smiled patiently, giggling under his breath. “I was offering to cook dinner for us both!”

Razz’s stomach growled; he was already late getting home, so Slim had probably already gone to Muffet’s for dinner. He’d probably fed the rabbits as well, so there was no reason that Razz _couldn’t_ go over to Blue’s to eat… it wasn’t like he hadn’t before. Blue was amazing when it came to food, last time Razz had been over there they had the most delicious fresh rab-

“Wait, what exactly are we eating?” Razz asked flatly. Blue laughed again, the tone making Razz’s marrow turn in a way that should never happen listening to a friend laugh.

“Don’t worry! You’re not on the menu tonight~” Blue joked, punching Razz’s arm. Razz growled under his breath. “Relax. I didn’t think the whole ‘drinking blood’ thing would throw you off so much; you know I’d never hurt my best friend.”

Razz grunted, moving to pick up their stuff. “Then what  _ are _ we eating?” Razz asked, loading up his duffle.

“Carrots!” Blue said.

Razz raised a brow, dubious. “...Carrots?” 

“Mhmm!” Blue nodded. “Steamed with butter and a little salt.”

Razz’s eyes narrowed. “Really?” He asked, forcing his face stoic before his stomach outed him once again with a thunderous growl. His cheeks burned. “Fine. I guess I could eat.”

Blue’s ears perked and his smile grew wider. “Yay!!!” he shouted, wrapping his arms around Razz’s shoulders. “It’s gonna be so awesome! We haven’t had a dinner party in so long~”

Razz grunted, feeling tired once more. He would love to be home right then, actually, curled up with a book or sitting by the TV - but he couldn’t deny the idea of having someone else cook for him just tonight was _very_ appealing. 

\---

“I hope you’re ready~”   


Razz grunted in approval, eyes heavy as he leaned forward onto his elbows. At first he had made an effort to seem alert and on guard (for his pride, of course - he certainly wasn’t still scared of Blue. Couldn’t be) but the rhythmic chopping coming from Blue’s kitchen and the occasional sounds of rushing water from the tap were hypnotic to his exhausted mind.

It sounded as if Blue was wrapping up in the kitchen, much to Razz’s delight. He had gone from hungry to starving, and was more than ready for dinner and then to go _home_. Razz could practically _feel_ his sheets under his body. 

For only a few seconds Razz must have dozed off, because when he looked up Blue was setting the table. Normally Razz would offer to help, but it seemed that Blue was almost done already. He watched as Blue retrieved a covered platter of some kind that was big enough to hold a meal for a family of four. Razz raised a brow. 

“Jeez, Blue, how many carrots did you make??” Razz asked, stifling a yawn as he sat up properly. 

“Oh… just a few~” Blue said, setting a dinner plate in front of Razz along with a jagged knife. 

“Just a few…?” Razz repeated back dubiously. Almost as soon as the syllables were out the lid on the platter  _ thumped _ . Razz started, ears perked as the sudden movement put him on alert. There was another  _ thump _ , followed by small, muffled cry. 

Razz looked to Blue, who was pouring drinks and humming innocently.

“Blue…. I thought you said we were having  _ carrots _ , ” Razz hissed, ears folding back.

“We are,” Blue said simply, as if Razz were the one acting odd. “Carrots and rabbit!”

Rabbit?? Razz opened his mouth to object, but the sight revealed when Blue lifted the lid shocked all the words out of him. There was a piteous rabbit skeleton, perhaps a bit taller than Edge if it stood up, but it could only squirm there on a bed of lettuce. Perhaps its arms were bound behind it, but even though it was naked Razz couldn’t see through its ribs due to all the carrots stuffed in its chest cavity. That couldn’t be comfortable. It stared fearfully at him, silenced by the apple wedged between its jaws—Razz wondered where Blue had gotten an apple that small, even as he was disturbed by his own lack of urgency, but on closer inspection, it was actually a cherry tomato. The bunny winced under his examining gaze, dripping fear sweat and melted butter onto the lettuce below. Its ears were plastered to its skull, sodden with juices, he hoped, and not magic. Razz had to put a stop to this before the poor monster was traumatized further. He looked up sharply at Blue.

“I know, I know.” Blue raised his hands apologetically.

Razz cycled quickly through confusion to anger. If Blueberry knew better than to serve up a rabbit to him like this, why had he done it?

“I really should have gotten two. But it’s big enough to share, right?”

“What?”

“I know what you’re thinking; it’ll just dust if we bite it in half, right? But look, you can just snap off a piece at a time. It’ll be fine.” Blue reached for the bunny. It squirmed away, but he pinned it down with one hand and grasped its lowest ribs with the other. The bunny looked around frantically, its sockets landing pleadingly on Razz.

“Wait!” Razz rushed forward and put a restraining hand over Blue’s. “I, uh, hate to be rude but I’m starving and I kinda really want the whole bunny to myself. I mean, I have been letting you have Edge all to yourself all these weeks.”

Blue stared at him for a moment and Razz tensed, ready for an argument, until Blue melted into his usual delighted grin. “All right then!” he said with a laugh. “I was gonna let you have the lion’s share anyway. If I ate too much of him he’d just reform in my belly and then we’d have another damaged rabbit to deal with.”

Razz laughed unconvincingly.

Blue pulled his hands back. “Go on, help yourself!”

Razz hesitated, torn between grabbing the bunny and running and letting go of it so it would stop looking so terrified at him.

“Maybe—I could take it home with me. I’m pretty tired, which is a testament to how intense your training has gotten.”

“But you were just saying how hungry you were!”

“Yeah, but—I ought to let Slim have some, or he’ll just eat junk all the time.”

“Oh, I’m sure he can take care of himself! Besides, wouldn’t it be a bit awkward to eat rabbit at your house? With your guests and all.”

Hand still resting lightly over the bunny, Razz turned suspicious eye lights on Blue. He’d thought the other wolf was too oblivious to pick up on that kind of consideration. Off-balance, he stammered uncharacteristically. “Well—yeah, but—”

“Don’t tell me you’ve gone soft on rabbits!” Blue’s grin widened. “That’s so adorable! They finally cracked through your tough exterior and got to your gooey, sentimental filling!”

“No!” Razz recoiled at both the accusation and the description. Blue made him sound like some kind of candy bar.

“You have! You don’t wanna hurt the cute little bunnies!” Blue taunted in a sing-song voice.

“No—look—just because I don’t go out of my way to—” Razz trailed off, unwilling to lie outright, but also unable to explain his refusal to eat rabbit. Blue waited expectantly for him to continue, thoroughly amused at his discomfort. The rabbit was frozen, panicked but unsure what to make of the exchange.

“Fine! I’ll prove it to you!” Razz grabbed the bunny and shoved it in his mouth, feeling a twinge of guilt not only at its muffled yelp of terror but at how little appreciation he was showing for Blueberry’s hospitality. But what was important now was to get the bunny out of here safely. He felt it shivering against his tongue—it tasted divine, rabbit and fear blending with the vegetables and spices, making his mouth water terribly. He didn’t know what Blue had done to it—had he softened it up so that they could snap its ribs off more easily?—hopefully it would be fine, but he’d have to examine it before he set it loose.

He realized Blue was watching him expectantly. He turned to run out the door, get home where he could spit the bunny out safely, but Blue grabbed his arm. Would his grip have been quite this strong without Razz’s training? It wasn’t the first time he had second thoughts about this wolf.

“Come on, Razz, you gotta tell me your impressions, so I can perfect my recipe!”

Razz’s fur fluffed out. He couldn’t get away that easily. And Blue was going to keep developing this recipe using more rabbits—but he had to admit it was a good recipe. He pulled steadily at his arm—yanking it would be too great a cost to his dignity—but Blue’s grip was iron. He couldn’t quite keep all the saliva contained and it started to drop down his jaw.

“Well?” Blueberry demanded.

Maybe he could—Edge had been fine, after being swallowed, for a good few minutes. The bunny wasn’t going to dissolve immediately, especially if Razz didn’t want it to. Maybe—it was the best way to get both of them out of this situation.

So he gulped. The bunny’s horrified squeak was muffled but it still echoed in his skull, and then it was buried in the magic of his throat, unable to resist. There was nothing he could do for it now but extricate himself quickly from Blue’s company. He smiled at the other wolf. “I gotta hand it to ya, you’re a good cook. I hate to eat and run but I wasn’t kidding about being tired.”

Blue had let go of his arm at the complement, framing his face with his fists in a giddy pose. “Okay, Razz! Don’t worry about not sharing—I made it for you, after all!”

Razz waved a hand in acknowledgment and turned for the door.

“I hope you’ll be my taste tester next time I make this recipe too!” Blue called after him.

Razz shuddered and sprinted toward home.

  
  



	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Razz brings home a surprise

“don’t watch this part,” Slim advised, pushing Red’s face deeper into his fluffy collar.  
  
“i’m a grown bunny, i can watch what i want!” Red protested, climbing out onto Slim’s shoulder.  
  
Slim shrugged, forcing him to dig his fingers in. “suit yourself.”  
  
“you’re not protecting my brother from this questionable content,” Red pointed out. Edge had run out of chores he could reach and deigned to join them in front of the TV, though he didn’t cuddle up against the wolf like Red did.  
  
“i can only shield the sensitivities of so many bunnies at once,” Slim explained. “besides, if i covered his eyes he’d probably bite off a phalange.”  
  
Edge grunted in apparent confirmation, not displeased at having intimidated the much larger wolf.  
  
A character in the TV show shrieked, drawing their attention back to it. “i guess i made you miss the gory part anyway,” Slim observed, settling back in satisfaction.  
  
“what, you don’t think rabbits—hey, down in front!” Red complained as Razz suddenly ran in, blocking their view of the TV as the door slammed behind him. “oh, stars, what are you doing?”  
  
The audience looked on in alarm as Razz hunched over, retching. It gave Slim a mild sense of deja vu. “m’lord?” He stood, concerned, Red still clinging to his shoulder.  
  
Razz finally expelled—something. He cupped it close to his chest before Slim could get a good look at it, although judging by the smell it might have been steamed carrots. What was so upsetting about that, though? Because Razz was clearly furious.  
  
“—I’ll dust him, if he doesn’t dust me first, with his weird blood-sucking thing, I should never have trained him, stars!” Razz’s muttering grew in volume almost to a shout, and Slim opened his mouth to ask who he was talking about, but—  
  
“who’s—what did you do to him?” Red exclaimed from his shoulder. “oh stars, why did i ever trust a wolf? razz! i thought you weren’t gonna do this anymore! come on, boss, we have to—!” The bunny was cut off as he jumped down from Slim’s shoulder and the wolf caught him in mid-air.  
  
“It’s not my fault!” Razz snapped, still wiping the drool from his jaw. “That idiot went and caught him for me, and what do you expect me to do? He’s lucky he wasn’t taken apart bone by bone!”  
  
“you don’t have to cook him up with all the trimmings and—” Red tried to pull himself out of Slim’s grasp, but Slim held him back with his other hand.  
  
“I didn’t!” Razz growled. “I told you, that idiot Blue went and—”  
  
Red shrank back for a moment, then leaned forward to growl back at Razz. “none of that means you gotta EAT him!”  
  
“hey,” Slim objected, pulling Red back. “don’t yell at m’lord. that rabbit is lucky it was him and not any other wolf.”  
  
Slim hadn’t realized what it was at first, with the pervading smell of rabbit masking its scent, but now Razz had relaxed his hands enough to reveal the bunny, naked except for assorted fluids and slivers of vegetable—the wolf’s stomach hadn’t been as gentle with the carrots as with the bunny, which was a testament to what safe hands it was in with Razz. He was about to say as much to Red, but the bunny glared up at him reproachfully.  
  
“you wolves are all the same, lying, bloodthirsty—”  
  
Slim’s ears pressed back. “say what you want about me, but don’t—” Slim cut off with a yelp as Red’s teeth sank into his hand.  
  
“Red! How dare you bite my brother!” Razz’s fur stood up with fury. “We take you in, and this is how you repay us, when you KNOW he only has—”  
  
Slim lifted the bunny out of Razz’s reach. “it’s okay, it was my fault, i squeezed ‘im by accident.”  
  
“sorry, i’m sorry,” Red muttered, and licked Slim’s phalange where deep orange magic was welling up. “oh, stars, i didn’t know i could bite that hard.”  
  
“it’s because you got the joint between bones,” Slim said, uncomfortable as everyone watched to see if he would dust.  
  
“Red, get down here, you coward,” Razz demanded after a moment, satisfied that the worst hadn’t happened but still angry.  
  
“i can’t, he’s got me.” Red was now huddling deeper in Slim’s grasp rather than trying to escape.  
  
“Slim, give me that rabbit this instant!”  
  
Slim couldn’t see anything good resulting from that. Red was even more fragile than himself. “it’s fine, m’lord, really. don’t you want to take care of the rabbit you already have?”  
  
Razz looked down at the rabbit in his hands as if he’d forgotten it was there. It was curled up, trembling. Nothing that had happened since its appearance had done anything to help calm it down. Slim hadn’t even noticed that Edge had hopped down and scaled Razz’s legs to talk soothingly to the new arrival. He started to climb closer, but Razz relented and set the new bunny down on the couch, not even finding a towel to put under it first.  
  
“Thank you, Razz. Are you all done squabbling?” Edge looked around reprovingly, then turned back to the newcomer. “There, see? They’re idiots but none of them is going to hurt you. You’re going to be all right.”  
  
The naked rabbit kept shivering, but after a moment its ears rose cautiously. Its fur was orange, more on the yellow side than Slim’s. Then it hesitantly lifted its skull to look around at the other skeletons. Its sockets met Edge’s and it froze.  
  
Edge had frozen as well. “Stretch?” he whispered.  
  
“edge! i thought you were dead! are we both dead?” The rabbit leapt to its feet and embraced him, a few carrot sticks falling out of his ribs.  
  
“I’ll—I’ll get you some clothes,” Razz said and hurried off.  
  
“You’re not dead,” Edge assured the new bunny. “And neither am I.”  
  
“are you sure? i’m pretty sure the wolf ate me.” Stretch released one arm from Edge so that he could look down at himself. “er. i know i’ve got no fashion sense but this is a bit much even for me.”  
  
“ain’t your fault, it’s the wolves,” Red grumbled from his position in Slim’s hands.  
  
“red! you’re alive too?” Stretch looked up toward the source of the voice and then backed away a step when he noticed Slim.  
  
“it’s not us, it’s just blueberry,” Slim insisted quietly. It rubbed him the wrong way that Red was still laying blame for this on Razz.  
  
“sorry,” said Red, still ashamed for biting him.  
  
“Yes, Razz has a lot more sense,” Edge agreed with Slim. “It’s a shame you got caught by Blueberry instead. Except that Razz wouldn’t have been trying to catch a rabbit. And any other wolf would have just eaten you themselves. In fact, I retract the statement. Despite this unprecedented ordeal you’ve clearly been through, Blueberry is the best possible wolf to get caught by. Good job.”  
  
“do i look like a baby goat? because you’ve got to be kidding.” Stretch didn’t seem offended, from the way he was leaning against Edge.   
  
Red laughed at the pun, and Slim was glad to see his mind taken off his guilt over biting him; but his high spirits were short-lived. “at least blueberry didn’t strip me naked before he bit my arm off!”  
  
“What are you getting at? Razz didn’t strip anyone. Blueberry did.”  
  
“that’s even worse! this is the wolf you’re trusting to heal you?”  
  
“what? heal you?” Stretch repeated, looking Edge over as well as he could without letting go of him.  
  
Edge glared at Red for a moment before stretching out his injured leg. “Yes.”  
  
“it’s not like he wasn’t gonna find out!” protested Red, as Slim stuffed him back inside his jacket.  
  
“what happened?” Stretch gasped.  
  
“I lost it in a trap.” He glanced around to make sure Razz hadn’t come back yet. “Razz—the other wolf, the purple one—saved me, but not without some … cost.”  
  
“a wolf saved you?”  
  
“He saved you too, just now,” Edge pointed out.  
  
“saved him? he ate him!” Red objected, his head and arms poking out above Slim’s collarbone.  
  
“Don’t be dense, Red. Clearly he only ate him in order to get him away safely from Blueberry.”  
  
“maybe,” Red admitted. “but why would blueberry do this to him in the first place? wolves are psychotic. you can’t—”  
  
He trailed off as he heard Slim’s thin whine of distress.  
  
“well, maybe some wolves are—i mean—anyway, i don’t trust that blueberry.”  
  
“He is … eccentric. At best,” Edge agreed.  
  
“you’re talking about the wolf that … caught me and …” Stretch shuddered. “cooked me?”  
  
“Yes. At least, that’s the impression I got. Now that everyone’s calmed down, Razz can tell us what happened, since he was there and not—under quite so much strain as you were.”  
  
“and who’s this other wolf?” Stretch cowered a little as he looked up at Slim again.  
  
“That’s Slim. He’s—actually, he’s kind of like you if you were a wolf.”  
  
Slim scrutinized the new rabbit and frowned. He wasn’t vain, but did he really resemble this nondescript bean sprout?  
  
“no he’s not.” Red objected as well. “he’s got all these pointy teeth and badass scars.”  
  
“Yes, because he’s a wolf!”  
  
“not all wolves have pointy teeth. look at blueberry!”  
  
“Ugh, don’t mention Blueberry to me!” Razz came back with a handful of cloth. “Here, I don’t guess Edge will mind if you borrow his spare clothes. But first we’d better get you cleaned up.” He glanced at Edge for confirmation before reaching out slowly toward the new rabbit, watching for signs of rejection. Stretch might have clung a little tighter to Edge’s arm, but that was all, so Razz draped a washcloth over him for chastity. Then he hesitated. “Is it okay if I pick you up? I realize you probably don’t want me to touch you after I—after what happened, but it’ll be hard for you to get to the sink by yourself.”  
  
The bunny half hid behind Edge.  
  
“Maybe Edge can come too, how about that?” Razz offered. Edge nodded agreement.  
  
Stretch looked from Razz to Edge and back. Perhaps he cared less about getting clean than keeping his distance from the wolves. But Edge wouldn’t approve of him getting butter and Razz’s magic all over his clothes, and if the new bunny was familiar with him, he probably knew that. “okay,” he said at last. “but—can i ask something first?”  
  
“Oh, right, you probably want to know why I brought you here like this.” Razz rolled his eyes but kept his tone light. “And I just got done saying I didn’t want to talk about Blueberry.”  
  
“that’s—that’s what i was gonna ask about though.” The rabbit was timid, still huddling behind Edge. “did something happen—did you eat blueberry too?”  
  
“What? No, of course not. I’m not a cannibal! Blue, on the other hand …”  
  
The apprehension in Stretch’s voice was matched only by his confusion. “what are you talking about? it’s not cannibalism for a wolf to eat a bunny.”  
  
Razz grimaced. “It is if he eats a wolf, though, even if it’s just a little blood.”  
  
“what?”  
  
“You know what, never mind. It’s a long story that has nothing to do with what happened to you.” The bunny didn’t react, so he continued. “Let me explain that for now, and we can get into the details of what happened to Edge and Red later. Now, I’m not one to shirk blame, but it’s entirely Blueberry’s fault.”  
  
“what!?” Stretch drew up straight in indignation. “what did he have to do with any of this?” His ears dropped again, in fear. “he didn’t get caught, did he?”  
  
Razz’s ear flicked, a sign of irritation or confusion. “What do you mean? He’s the one going around catching rabbits.”  
  
“he would never!”  
  
“He would and he did. Just ask Red over there.”  
  
The bunny glared defiantly toward Red, who was still watching the show from inside Slim’s jacket collar. Slim couldn’t see his expression, but after a moment Red burst out laughing. “wait, wait, i know what happened here! stretch, you’re asking about your brother, right?”  
  
“yes,” Stretch said, cautious.  
  
“now you mention it, i remember his name was blueberry too!”  
  
“Of course!” Edge caught on.  
  
“what do you mean ‘was’?” Stretch’s voice was strained. “did he—?”  
  
“no, no, sorry. he IS named blueberry,” Red corrected himself.  
  
“Oh! There’s a rabbit named Blueberry too,” Razz realized. “I can see how that was confusing. I’m talking about the wolf who caught you and—served you to me.”  
  
Stretch shuddered.  
  
“Well—let’s not go into details about that. I just want you to understand that I only did what I did to get you safely away from there—and I succeeded! You’re not injured, right?”  
  
Stretch nodded reluctantly, as Edge looked him over again to confirm that he was whole.  
  
“And you’ll be free to go as soon as you’ve recovered, if you wish.”  
  
“are we okay with him telling the other bunnies about this, or do we wanna come to some kind of agreement?” Slim interjected.  
  
Razz paused. “We can discuss that later,” he dismissed the issue, as if it hadn’t taken him by surprise.  
  
Slim shrugged. “all right. y’know, i’d be _berry_ pleased to meet this bunny’s brother, except the thing with the names would drive me _bananas_.”  
  
“Oh no, not fruit puns again!” Razz pinned his ears back.  
  
“but it’s a great name, it has _a-peel_. i want to _apple-aud_ whoever came up with it.”  
  
Stretch laughed, although he was clearly still intimidated by the wolves. Slim glanced at Razz—he wasn’t at his least threatening when fuming over puns. “hey, bunny, _orange_ you ready to get cleaned up? why don’t i help you out? i can carry a _pear_ of rabbits, no problem.”  
  
“i’m afraid your efforts are _fruitless_ ; i prefer vegetables,” Stretch punned back. He only shivered a little bit as Slim carried him and Edge to the sink.  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I agonized a lot over whether the new bunny should be Tale Paps (he's such a great bunny! I love him!) or Swap Paps (how could it not be him after Blue said he was Carrots?)
> 
> At first I was reluctant to use Swap Paps because I kind of pick on him a lot, and presumably there is a wolf Swap Paps who is wolf Blueberry's brother. But this isn't the first time I've had [wolf/fox and bunny versions of the same skeletons in a story](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15331737/chapters/35572680). Anyway, if you like Stretch's inclusion, thank DandelionSea, but if you think it's too much, I will accept the blame X3


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bunnies talk a lot and there isn't enough room in the chapter for the good part :3

Stretch was welcomed to the bunny cuddle pile established by Edge and Red. Red tried not to begrudge him, but it had been nice having the box in Razz’s room just for himself and Edge. Edge hadn’t been this cuddly before his capture, and it was one of the few silver linings Red had found in the whole ordeal. Maybe Stretch would opt to leave, since he wasn’t injured and wasn’t as devoted to Edge as Red was.  
  
But it was awkward when he and Stretch were left alone. Edge couldn’t lie around all day with them, and Stretch didn’t have anywhere else to go. “Be nice to Stretch,” Edge instructed as he left to start his completely unnecessary cleaning routine after breakfast. The wolves had won Stretch over to some extent with Razz’s cooking, and he was able to relax in their house, so long as they weren’t present. Red was happy enough to keep him company.  
  
“since you’re not doing anything,” Stretch said, interrupting the companionable silence, “maybe you can tell me how all this happened.”  
  
“all what?”  
  
“why you and edge are living with wolves?”  
  
“oh. well. it’s a long story.”  
  
“i’ve got time.” Stretch lay back against the blanket, hands crossed behind his skull.  
  
Red grumbled. “fine. i guess—i guess it started with boss getting caught in a trap. razz got him out, but as you’ve seen, it did some damage.”  
  
“razz is the wolf that—?” Stretch didn’t want to say it outright, that Razz had eaten him.  
  
“yeah.”  
  
“and what were you doing at the time?”  
  
Red bristled with anger for a moment, then curled up under the weight of remembered trauma. “blue caught me by hand. no traps.”  
  
“the same wolf that caught me?”  
  
Red shuddered. “yeah.”  
  
“what’d he do?” Stretch seemed genuinely sympathetic. “you get stuffed with carrots too?”  
  
“no.”  
  
Stretch lifted his skull to look over at him, curious why he was avoiding answering the question.  
  
Red sighed in resignation. “chewed me up pretty bad. and ate me.”  
  
“he ate you?” Stretch clearly didn’t understand how Red could have lived to tell about it.  
  
“hey, you got eaten too,” Red reminded him. “that part isn’t so bad. chewing is worse.”  
  
“chewing …?”  
  
Red held up his reattached arm to display the seam in his jacket sleeve.   
  
“he ripped your jacket?”  
  
Red laughed ruefully. “i got it worse than the jacket.”  
  
“that sounds awful.” Stretch mercifully decided not to pry further.  
  
“you’re probably wondering why i’m alive.” Red couldn’t accept that favor and still tell the story.  
  
“yeah, kinda.” Stretch was wary.  
  
“it’s the darnedest thing. blue has healing abilities.”  
  
“what?”  
  
“so he kinda … undid all the damage. while i was … inside.”  
  
“you don’t have to tell me, you can stop.”  
  
Red wiped at his sockets. “no, i’m fine. that was the worst part.”  
  
Stretch waited a moment. “so you survived being—you survived, and then?”  
  
“he was gonna just set me loose in the forest, but razz found out and brought me here, since boss was here already.”  
  
“i guess that explains it.” Stretch looked as if he were still processing it. Understandable.  
  
“there’s more, though.” Red grimaced. He could have just avoided it, but since he was already talking about unpleasant subjects … “blue and razz are still kinda friends. i guess you know. since blue caught you as a favor to him.”  
  
Stretch shuddered, listening silently. Red felt a twinge of guilt. Was he blaming Stretch for the necessity of putting all this into words?  
  
“and they’re—blue is—treating boss. for his leg. maybe they can restore it.”  
  
Stretch’s ears stood up in confusion. “how?”  
  
Red cringed, looked away, steadied himself. “blue eats him.”  
  
Stretch was horrified. He hadn’t understood. Although to be fair, Red was horrified even though he was intimately familiar with how it worked.  
  
“to heal him, the same way he healed me,” he explained.  
  
Stretch was silent, and Red looked over to see how he was taking it. He had curled up with his arms over his skull.  
  
“yeah, i feel the same way,” Red muttered, then let the silence last until Stretch slowly uncurled.  
  
“i can’t imagine … letting a wolf do that.”  
  
Red knew how he felt. Stretch hadn’t been through the same thing as him, but the experience might have been almost as traumatic. “yeah. he doesn’t even need to, really. you’ve seen him; he can get around fine.”  
  
“yeah,” Stretch agreed.  
  
“maybe—maybe between the two of us we can convince him to end this madness.” Red sat up, enthusiasm growing.  
  
“what do you mean?”  
  
“i’ve told—asked—begged him, really, not to do this anymore. but he won’t listen. maybe if you back me up …”  
  
Stretch looked at him for a moment. “but isn’t it the only way to fix his leg? i mean, if there was another way, you’d be doing that instead, right?”  
  
“so? he’s fine the way he is!”  
  
Stretch looked uncomfortable. “are the wolves gonna let him go when he’s healed?”  
  
“he’s not, like, their prisoner or anything. he could go home now if he wanted.”  
  
“huh. well, if it were me, and i hadn’t been—eaten—i’d probably be pretty tempted to just stay here. you’ve got it pretty good, right? three square meals a day and no responsibilities that i’ve noticed.”  
  
Red’s ears were starting to fold back. “yeah, so?”  
  
“but edge isn’t like that. he wants to walk on his own two feet. literally.”  
  
“like i said, he—”  
  
“but can you honestly say he’s as fast and agile as he ever was?”  
  
“maybe not but i—”  
  
“i couldn’t do it, but if he wants to, y’know, exhaust every avenue, i think it’s pretty brave of him.” Stretch leaned back, as if that were the final word on the subject.  
  
“what are you saying, carrots? you’re okay with him getting eaten by a wolf? and not just any wolf, a sadistic wolf!”  
  
Stretch shrugged, ignoring the name. “aren’t they all sadistic?”  
  
“no! slim and razz—”  
  
“what, they’ve never eaten a bunny?”  
  
Red glowered. “razz only ate you to get you out of there.”  
  
“what about other bunnies, before they met you two?”  
  
Red growled. “they’re wolves. what do you expect?”  
  
“my point exactly.”  
  
Stretch was infuriatingly calm. Red raised an accusing finger and opened his mouth to argue, but he found himself unsure of his position. Slim might have eaten bunnies in the past—he hadn’t asked, but he had to assume as much—but he wouldn’t do such a thing now, would he? Red wasn’t as sure as he would like. It wasn’t as if he’d taken a vow never to hurt a rabbit again. It just made Red angrier with Stretch.  
  
“Red! Be nice to Stretch. He’s been through a lot.” Edge had come in while Red was caught in his conflicting thoughts.  
  
“boss! i was just tryin’ to tell him razz and slim are, y’know, nice wolves.”  
  
“Yes, yes, we owe them a lot.” Edge’s ear twitched. “But Razz did eat him.”  
  
“razz ate _you_ and ya didn’t hold a grudge.”  
  
“razz ate you?!” Stretch sat up, surprised.  
  
Edge nodded stiffly. “It’s a long story. But it was not malicious.”  
  
“not malicious?” Stretch echoed in disbelief.  
  
Edge glared at Red for bringing up the topic.  
  
“well if you’re both agreed that wolves are vicious, maybe you shouldn’t be letting blue eat ya,” Red said, crossing his arms sulkily.  
  
Edge glanced at Stretch and saw he didn’t react to this like new information. “Red, did you—”  
  
“especially since blue actually is vicious.”  
  
“Red.” Edge was getting exasperated. “I know Blue is eccentric and the whole business bothers you. But—”  
  
“eccentric! you know what he did to me!” The crunch of his own bones still echoed in his ears.  
  
“Red—”  
  
Red turned away, not wanting the other rabbits to see the tears gathering in his eye sockets, and slouched out of the room as quickly as he thought he could without looking like he was in a hurry.  
  
***  
  
“what’s wrong, bunny?”  
  
Slim was in his own room. Red sullenly pulled himself up to curl up on top of the wolf’s stomach. Slim cupped a hand over him, but he just curled up tighter.  
  
“did you get crowded out of the bunny cuddle pile?”   
  
He’d meant it as a joke, but maybe it was too close to the truth. Red glared at him a moment before curling up tighter. Slim left him alone to process whatever he was feeling, and he gradually relaxed again as the minutes dragged on. Slim was perfectly content to just lie there with him, but when he glanced down to check on him and their eyes met he felt like he should say something.   
  
“you don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”  
  
Red grunted listlessly.   
  
“if it’s that new bunny, i doubt he’ll stay. he seems to have a healthy fear of wolves.” Slim smiled self-deprecatingly.  
  
“i hope he stays. boss likes him. maybe if he stays boss will want to stay too and—” The hope that had built in his voice drained away.   
  
“you want to stay?”  
  
“yeah. i mean i don’t care where we are so long as—but if we just stayed here boss wouldn’t have to—you know. with blue.”  
  
Slim’s ears must have dropped when he realized he didn’t fit into the calculation anywhere. Red grimaced uncomfortably.   
  
“sorry. i like it here, honest, aside from that. but that’s a pretty big thing.”  
  
Slim couldn’t imagine the right thing to say so he just ran his claws down the bunny’s back. It seemed to help.   
  
***  
  
Red’s mind ran in circles and kept him awake even as Slim dozed off. If only Edge were content to stay here like this. He couldn’t be lonely with both Red and Stretch—Stretch might well stay if Edge decided to stay permanently. Or they could all leave right now and never have anything to do with wolves again. Edge could survive with both Red and Stretch to support him. Stretch wasn’t really a go-getter but he wasn’t as bad as Red…  
  
He had a terrible idea. Counterintuitive but it just might work. If Edge hadn’t been quite so brave he would never have started this thing with Blue. If something happened to make him just a little more afraid of wolves, it could push him over the tipping point of refusing the treatment. If he were forced to confront the horror of what wolves did…  
  
He’d probably still be fine around Razz; it wasn’t like Razz was going to swallow him again. And if not, he’d still have Stretch. He’d get by.   
  
As for Red, he wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore.   
  
Before he lost his nerve, he crawled up to Slim’s face and leaned against his teeth. They were huge and sharp, but he had to get over his fear of them. “hey slim. you awake?”  
  
Slim’s skull turned and he lost his balance. “huh? what?”   
  
The wolf watched apologetically as he got to his feet again on Slim’s chest. But Red shook it off. “got a favor to ask you.” He was already shivering with nerves.   
  
“anything,” Slim answered easily. Red hesitated, realizing what a big ask it was—what would Razz think? If Edge did stay, would they kick Slim out? But none of that was important compared to Edge.   
  
“i want you to eat me.”  
  
Slim paused a moment, surprised. “okay.”  
  
Red shrank down into his jacket.   
  
“are you sure?” said the wolf.   
  
“yeah.”  
  
“all right. take off your clothes.”  
  
Red stared at him.   
  
“i want to taste you, not your clothes.”  
  
Fair enough. Red couldn’t quite believe what he was doing, but he shuffled off his jacket, shirt and shorts, leaving his bones exposed. It wasn’t as if Slim hadn’t seen them before.   
  
“good bunny.” Slim had been stretched out horizontally but he propped himself up a little to watch Red. Now he let his jaw hang open invitingly, orange tongue covering the sharp lower incisors.   
  
Red was a little taken aback that Slim had agreed to this so easily, and was apparently so eager to get on with it. Then again, there was no point in dragging it out. It might have been easier for Red if Slim has just snatched him up. But if he forced Red to walk into his mouth—to feed himself to him—he could be sure this was really what Red wanted. It was considerate in a cruel way.   
  
He climbed up Slim’s shirt and held onto his lower fangs. Slim held rock still, although he had an air of excitement. Red tried to walk up his tongue but it was too slippery smooth. Slim tolerated having his tongue stepped on without complaint. Red moved around to the side and slipped between the jaws to lie across Slim’s tongue. Slim bit down gently, holding him there, and Red froze.   
  
He tried to calm himself. It was all for Edge. This was about the only way he could be useful to Edge anyway. And he definitely preferred Slim over any other wolf. He owed him something after kicking him and biting him like that. And besides, he was a wolf—so their relationship couldn’t really be anything other than this.   
  
Slim sat up—it was probably harder to swallow him lying down. Red panicked. 


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Red and Slim are awkward.

The rabbit had been tense already but suddenly he began to struggle, desperately as if fighting for his life. Slim waited to see if he would stop. He couldn’t let go of him while he was doing that; Red might hurt Slim or himself or even fall out in an unpredictable direction so that Slim couldn’t catch him. So he waited, growing more anxious by the second as Red pressed futilely against his jaws and tongue.   
  
Until something sharp pricked his tongue and he spat reflexively. He managed to catch Red in his hands. Thank stars his instinct hadn’t been to bite down.   
  
“you okay, red?” he asked. The bunny had curled up on his metacarpals and gone still.   
  
“we can try this some other time,” Slim offered.  
  
“no! no, let’s do it now.” Red uncurled himself and sat facing Slim, but his movements and his reassuring grin were forced.   
  
“are you sure?”  
  
“yeah. please. but…” Red looked away. “you do it this time. don’t make me…”  
  
“okay,” Slim agreed with a flick of his ear in place of a shrug. He didn’t see why Red was in such a hurry to get over his fear of being eaten, but if he wanted to get on with it Slim was happy to help. If Red could desensitize himself before Edge’s next treatment, it would probably be much easier on him, but they had plenty of time before that. Still, maybe Red was afraid he’d lose his nerve if he waited. He was tempted to try and soothe Red with licking, but perhaps the bunny wouldn’t find that so soothing. He should just get on with it.   
  
“don’t bite my tongue again,” he warned. “I might bite down by accident.” He didn’t want to threaten the bunny, but it was a serious safety issue.   
  
“sorry,” Red muttered.   
  
It was, Slim had to admit, a lot simpler just to pick up the bunny himself and slide him in head-first. He waited a moment with Red’s legs dangling out of his mouth, skull tilted back so that he wouldn’t slide out again, to see if the bunny would change his mind. Red moved a little on his tongue, curling up on himself. Either he was afraid or he was making it easier for Slim by curling up small. The wolf wouldn’t have minded keeping him there a while longer—he tasted magnificent—but he couldn’t imagine Red was enjoying this. So he let the bunny slide deeper and gulped him down.  
  
It had been a long time since he did anything like this. At first he’d viewed Edge as nothing but a snack, and even when Razz kept him around he hadn’t thought anything would really change. Of course Razz wouldn’t let him get away with eating rabbits at home, or talking about it in front of Edge, but at first he had assumed that he might go hunting if he was discreet about it, and whatever happened with Edge he’d eventually leave and everything would be back to normal. But as tempting as the bunnies were, he found that at some point he’d given up on ever eating another bunny. He couldn’t have done something like that and faced Red afterward.  
  
Now he knew he’d never eat another bunny, because no other rabbit could compare to Red. It wasn’t physically any different, but to know the creature who was sliding down his throat, personally, added a whole new intimacy to the experience.  
  
When Red was settled in his stomach, he pulled up his shirt to take a look. The bunny was curled up again, so it was hard to judge how he was doing; he seemed a little stiff, not relaxed. Razz had held Edge safely in his stomach for a good ten minutes, and that was when he’d initially intended to digest him, so he should be fine in there for a little while. But there was no sense taking risks, and he was worried about Red’s emotional state.  
  
He’d never let a bunny back out after swallowing it before, but it proved simple enough. Red looked bedraggled and small, lying in his cupped hands. He wasn’t moving, and after a few seconds it started to make Slim feel uneasy. He petted the bunny’s ribs with his thumb, gently, though bone-on-bone probably didn’t feel as nice as when the bunny was clothed.  
  
After a few moments Red finally stirred, turning his skull toward Slim, sockets wide. “you didn’t do it?”  
  
“yeah i did,” Slim corrected him.  
  
Red stared at him. “but—i’m still here.”  
  
“of course you are. you didn’t think i’d—wait, did you?” Slim felt his fur bristle.  
  
Red shrank back, and Slim resumed petting him, trying to hold his ears neutral and look non-threatening.  
  
“i wouldn’t do that to you. don’t you know that?”  
  
“you said you would—you offered to, one time.”  
  
“did i?” Slim’s ears perked, startled. “oh, i guess i did.”  
  
“so why didn’t you?”  
  
“why would i?”  
  
“i asked you to.”  
  
“i didn’t know you meant—like that.” Slim let his ears lie back.  
  
“what did you think i meant?” Red snapped.  
  
“i thought you were just trying to get over your fear of—being eaten by a wolf.”  
  
“why would i wanna do that? that’s a perfectly normal thing to be afraid of!” Red pushed himself into a sitting position in Slim’s hands, for easier scolding.  
  
“so it wouldn’t bother you so much when your brother gets eaten!”  
  
Red opened his mouth to reply and then stopped, turning away. “put me down please.”  
  
Slim didn’t let go of the bunny, but lay down on his side, keeping him cradled in his hands even as he set him on the mattress. “so that’s why you were so scared. i’m sorry, red.”  
  
“you don’t gotta be sorry. i asked you to do it.”  
  
Slim was burning up to ask why Red would want such a thing, but he didn’t dare. He curled a little tighter around the bunny and licked his skull. Red didn’t object; in fact he relaxed a little. So Slim grew bolder, licking from his skull along the length of his ears. The bunny still had a lot of deep orange ectoplasm coating his bones, and he didn’t seem to mind when Slim started cleaning him off. Soon Slim was concentrating so hard on getting his tongue into the joints and crevices that he momentarily forgot how terrible he felt about eating Red.  
  
He even forgot how scared Red was of his teeth, letting a fang clink against his skull as he tried to reach the insides of his ribs. He felt the bunny flinch.  
  
“oh—red, i—” He pulled his skull away.  
  
“it’s okay,” Red interrupted. “bunnies are just skittish. can’t help it. you know i trust you, right?”  
  
Slim let his gaze fall. He couldn’t imagine Red had started hanging out with him because he’d trusted him. More likely he’d felt helpless to avoid the wolf and figured he might as well embrace the situation. He could believe Red had come to trust him since then—but had he really given the bunny reason to do so? “if you trust me, why did you ask me to … ?”  
  
Red squirmed in his hands. “i wouldn’t ask someone i _didn’t_ trust.”  
  
Slim didn’t want to argue, but Red wasn’t making sense. “i only said yes because i thought you trusted me _not_ to hurt you.”  
  
Red met his gaze, clearly pained that he’d been so wrong about Slim, and started petting one of his proximal phalanges. “stars, slim, i’m sorry. i wasn’t thinking about how any of that would make you feel.”  
  
Slim’s ears dipped for a moment. Red had probably assumed he’d be happy about it; he was a wolf after all, and wolves were vicious predators, right? But it was hard to hold it against Red in light of what he’d just been through. “don’t apologize. you’re the one that got eaten.”  
  
Red pushed away from Slim’s hands and closer to his skull, resting his own hand against the wolf’s gold fang. “yeah. but i knew i was using you—i had some idea that if you had eaten me, it woulda left you in a bad position with razz and boss. i just—was only thinking about boss, and besides, if i was dead i wouldn’t care if you were mad at me.”  
  
Slim’s eye sockets widened. “i didn’t even think of that,” he said, barely moving his jaw because the bunny was so close to it.  
  
Red looked up at him, and Slim was struck with how vulnerable he was, pressed up against a wolf’s skull. “what? then why—?”  
  
“why would killing you upset me?” Slim’s ears folded back.  
  
“well, when you put it that way.” Red’s ears sank too.  
  
Slim sighed, his breath buffeting the rabbit. “i would never—i don’t want to hurt you, red. i love you.”  
  
Red’s eye lights disappeared.  
  
Slim froze, ears perked. “oh. stars. i—i mean—never mind.” He pulled his skull away, but Red grabbed onto the edge of his nasal bone and got dragged along with him. Slim whined.  
  
“don’t—don’t go.” Red let go of his skull.  
  
Slim pinned back his ears. “but—i don’t want to hurt you.” And here he’d made Red think he was going to die, and then made him feel guilty about thinking he’d been going to die.  
  
“you haven’t hurt me,” Red said.  
  
Slim didn’t really believe that, but arguing with the bunny wouldn’t help anything. If Red wanted him to stay, he would. After a few long, awkward sentences, he spoke hesitantly. “can i ask something?”  
  
“sure.” Red seemed nervous.  
  
“why did you ask me to do that? if it wasn’t to help you deal with edge’s treatments.”  
  
“oh, uh.” Red seemed even more uncomfortable. “i thought if he were more scared of wolves he wouldn’t let blue continue the ‘treatments.’”  
  
“and if you were eaten by a wolf, he’d have to realize how scary wolves really are.” Slim felt like his soul had clenched up.  
  
“oh stars. i’m so—you got every right to be angry.” Slim must have looked miserable to draw out even more apologies.  
  
“it’s fine,” he said. It wasn’t fine, but he’d get over it. “i understand. about your brother.” He would have done anything for Razz, too. “but red. don’t you think—if i’m upset by the prospect of you dying—wouldn’t it be even worse for edge?”  
  
“boss? he doesn’t really need me. especially when he has stretch.”  
  
Slim thought for a moment. “he’s tough. he doesn’t really need anyone to survive. he would get by somehow on his own even without the leg. but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t need you.”  
  
“heh. maybe.” Red laughed fragilely. “but you know what? i think you need me too.” Slim’s ears stiffened. “as a neck warmer,” Red continued. “those cervical vertebrae look cold.”  
  
Slim chuffed in amusement as the bunny, already close to his jaw, climbed in between his skull and collarbone and curled up against his spine. He rolled over onto his back. “you’d be warmer if you put your jacket back on,” he suggested.  
  
“meh. too much work.”

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Emotional Support Wolf](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15233322) by [idontevenknowugh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/idontevenknowugh/pseuds/idontevenknowugh)




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